


Save Me: I’m Naked and Far from Home

by Julesmonster



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Not kind to some Avengers, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Steve Rogers needs to grow up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-18 02:46:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18111677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julesmonster/pseuds/Julesmonster
Summary: After Ultron, Omega Tony goes off to his private tropical island to lick his wounds. He knows that he screwed up, and if he didn’t know it, the people he thought of as his friends were sure to point it out to him. Repeatedly. At maximum volume. Ad nauseam. Even Pepper dumped him. He had nothing left to stay for. He spends his days in his workshop, producing the projects that Pepper and SI need. His only companions are Vision, FRIDAY and his bots, though Rhodey flies by when he can get away from his duties.Six months after hiding away, Tony is as content as he can be with his solitary life.Of course, that’s when an unexpected visitor shows up and shakes up everything





	Save Me: I’m Naked and Far from Home

**Author's Note:**

> Story title taken from “Save Me” by Queen
> 
> I started this a long time ago as a response to my frustrations after seeing Age of Ultron and Civil War. It changed and developed as more movies came out, adding characters as they were introduced to the MCU. As I post this, I have just come from seeing Captain Marvel. As such, Carol Danvers is a bit generic in this story, though not entirely out of character.
> 
> If you are a diehard fan of Scarlet Witch or Steve Rogers, you may not enjoy this story. If you hate it, please don’t tell me. I so rarely post anything anymore because people can’t seem to be nice. My picture of a character may not match yours. If you don’t like that, just stop reading.
> 
> All that being said, I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> Jules

The Winter Soldier had never needed to blend in; his missions were short enough, his leash tight enough that his handlers never felt the need to teach him that skill. After all, there was always an extraction team ready to pull him out as soon as the job was finished. Instead, he was taught how to hide in the shadows and avoid the light of day.

Bucky Barnes had once oozed charisma and grace, gifted with the ability to enthrall just about anyone with his boyish smile and good humor, but all of that charm had been wiped away so many times that if there was any left, he didn’t know how to access it. When the Winter Soldier broke free from Hydra, when he walked away from his mission to kill Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, there was very little of Bucky Barnes left, and what there was hadn’t known how to fit into the modern world. So he had fled to the shadows where he was comfortable. And when he could no longer safely stay hidden, he headed for the wilderness. 

Survival was easy in the places few men travel, even in this day and age. He went first to the Appalachian Mountains and found shelter there for a time. But there were too few truly isolated places left. So he headed west until he reached the Rockies. After a while, when his mind felt stronger, his memories had begun to slowly return and he wasn't so afraid of hurting innocent people. So he began to slowly stalk the edges of civilization, observing and relearning human interaction. To a degree. Luckily, most people in rural Montana didn’t expect grace and charm from men who live off the grid. And there were more of those types out there than Bucky or the Soldier would have thought.

It took months for him to feel ready to mix among civilized people again. In that time, he began planning his next steps. He knew that there were still things that could be done to wipe away his memories and turn him back into the assassin that Hydra prized. He had to get the Red Book—the book with all his trigger words, the book that let his handlers control him—and then he had to get to someone that he could trust to help him break the encoding.

The first part was easy enough, though the more frightening of the two objectives. If caught, he would once again be stuck in that cycle of torture and mindless killing. Still, if he wanted to break the cycle for good, he had to get that book and destroy all the information about how they had made him. 

It took three months to track down the book and take possession. It took another six to hunt down every last one of the electronic and hard copy files on the Winter Soldier program and almost a year to kill every Hydra agent who had served as his handler or was present when they performed a mental wipe. Finally, it took another month to make it to Siberia to dispose of the other Winter Soldiers and destroy the abandoned base there. When it was all over, he felt like he could breathe again for the first time in more than seventy years. 

He spent a week in a small village on the Baltic, sleeping as much as humanly possible, to celebrate the completion of his first objective. Then he set out to figure out how to achieve the second part of his self-imposed mission.

His first stop was Washington D.C. and Steve Rogers. Whenever he wasn’t hunting down villains, or searching for Bucky, Captain America was usually in D.C. at the new Avengers compound, built by what was left of SHIELD. Bucky didn’t want to see Steve. Or rather, he didn't want to interact with Steve. Bucky wasn’t the person that the hero wanted him to be, and doubted he ever would be. He doubted that he ever really was, even before everything went to shit. From what he could remember, Steve had always had a somewhat skewed view of him. But being around Steve, even for only a few hours and from a distance, somehow helped his memories return faster.

That was one of the reasons he trusted the blond, even though he didn't want to be best buddies right then. So when he overheard Steve talking with his new pal, Sam Wilson, about Bucky and his brainwashing problem, he listened carefully.

“It’s too bad that Stark isn’t around,” Wilson said. “He could probably invent some miracle machine to counteract whatever they did to him.”

Steve sighed. “I’m positive he could. He was already working on something that helps treat traumatic memories that lead to destructive behaviors before Sokovia. He used to talk about how it could be used for soldiers suffering from PTSD." Steve paused and when he spoke again, his voice was filled with bitterness. "Too bad he didn’t use it on himself. It might have saved the world a lot of trouble. Instead, he let his irrational fears overrule common sense, and now the UN wants to tie our hands with the Accords because HE messed up.”

“We talked about what happened with Ultron,” Sam said in a voice that Bucky deemed his therapy voice, after having eavesdropped on the pair numerous times. He knew from his research on all of the Avengers, that Sam Wilson had a background working with former soldiers, helping them get their lives back on track. Shell-shock they called it in his day. Now they called it PTSD. Same thing. And it sounded like he was trying to help Steve deal with some of his issues. Bucky had to admire the guy for doing it while the pair walked the grounds of the compound and Steve was relaxed. What he could remember about his best friend said that he wouldn’t take well to traditional therapy. Then again, neither would Bucky.

“From everything you’ve said in previous conversations, you know that Stark was not the only one responsible for what happened in Sokovia,” Wilson reminded Steve. 

The blond sighed. “I know. I feel like we’ve talked this to death. I agree with you that Wanda probably messed with Stark's head. But she messed with all of us. And I know she should probably get some training before we let her out in the field again, especially after the last incident. 

"More than just training," Sam insisted. "She needs serious counseling."

"But this isn’t about her,” Steve continued as though Sam hadn't spoken.

“No, it’s not; it's about you and your inability to see the people on your team realistically. And I think I need to remind you that Ultron wasn’t all just Wanda and Stark at fault,” Wilson said firmly. “The entire team played a part in what happened there. You, as team leader, should have paid more attention to your team’s mental state. And even if you happened to miss the glaring signs of his PTSD, you definitely knew that Stark has authority issues, and instead of talking your concerns over with him, you got aggressive and demanding. You had to know that wouldn’t fly with him, after working on the same team for three years.”

Steve’s only response was a stubborn grunt. 

“You know I’m right. You let your own issues with Howard Stark color how you dealt with Tony Stark from the very beginning. You made mistakes. So did Banner, whose well deserved neuroses made him vulnerable to Stark’s special brand of paranoia brought out by Wanda’s magical mind-meddling. Or what about Natasha, who supposedly can read Stark well enough to write an entire psychological profile of him, but couldn’t see he was suffering from PTSD? I could go on, but the point is, no one is blameless in how the Ultron mess played out. And not one person bears more of the blame than the rest, either. 

“We’ve all made some pretty major mistakes since then, too, especially Wanda. Only now Stark isn't around to blame so people are pointing fingers at each other like kids. Is it any wonder that the UN wants to give us boundaries? And can you really blame them?”

They passed out of Bucky’s hearing range then, and he was left to consider his options. Steve and Wilson both believed that Tony Stark could help him break Hydra’s conditioning. Steve blamed Stark for some stuff, and didn’t seem to like him much, but Wilson said whatever had gone wrong wasn’t all Stark’s fault. Bucky could remember how stubborn and judgmental Steve could be when they were kids and could imagine that Steve had gotten his back up about something with Stark and wouldn’t let it go. In the end, Steve trusted Wilson and Wilson said Stark wasn’t a bad person, so maybe Howard’s son could actually help him. 

He knew who Tony Stark was. He remembered Howard Stark from the war. He knew that one of his missions had been to kill Howard and Maria Stark. He also knew that Tony Stark was Iron Man, a former Avenger. What he didn’t know was where the man was now, nor whether he would be willing to help him—or if he would kill him on sight, instead—but there was only one way to find out. 

Unfortunately, it was well known that Stark had been hiding out since the disaster in Sokovia. For months, the media had speculated about his reasons for leaving the Avengers, not to mention whether he would ever come back. He’d been one of the first to sign the UN Accords, but he’d done so from wherever he was; he hadn’t come to the UN to sign, and he’d only responded to a couple requests for assistance since then, disappearing again soon after stopping the villain of the day.

So Bucky Barnes began to spy on Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. He figured that if anyone knew where Tony Stark was hiding out, it would be her, since it was also well known that Stark was still developing projects for SI. Bucky wasn’t disappointed. After only a couple days of observation in California, he overheard a phone call received while Potts was going from a limo to the doors of Stark Industries which led him to the Miami based company that delivered supplies to Stark’s private island in the Caribbean every week. So he headed for Florida by freight train, hopping shipping cars like the hobos did when he was a kid, and apparently still did. In Miami, he learned that there was no way he was going to make it onto the island undetected using the weekly supply delivery. The plane was too small, landed for too short a time, and he’d have to hurt somebody to achieve his objective. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.

Plan B involved a freighter that would pass within 15 kilometers of the island on its way to San Juan, but he’d had to swim further than 9 miles under much worse conditions. So, when the ship reached the right coordinates two nights later, he tossed his gear—carefully wrapped in thick plastic bags to keep his guns and ammo dry, then tied off with a long rope that would allow him to tow the inflated bag behind him—overboard and followed quickly into the black water of the night. 

Other than a single run-in with a nurse shark—easily deterred with a punch to the nose—Bucky’s midnight swim went smoothly. Three hours and twenty minutes after jumping ship, Bucky reached the shores of Stark’s private island.

WINTER-IRON

Tony stared at the image of his teammates on the television. Former teammates, he corrected himself. They had unanimously voted him off the proverbial island and asked him to resign from the Avengers Initiative after Sokovia. Only Vision, who wasn’t actually a member, had stood beside him. And now, only Vision was with him in his self-imposed exile.

"I can't believe that they're opposing the accords," Tony sighed as he watched the news coverage of the Avengers' meeting with the UN. "You'd think that after my screw-up that they'd welcome a little better supervision."

“Sokovia was not your failure alone,” Vision stated in his voice that was so much like JARVIS, and yet heartbreakingly not him. “You were not alone in your choices, you did not control all of the circumstances which led to that tragic conclusion, and you should not shoulder the blame alone. I strongly believe that Ms. Maximoff, as well as her late brother, played a much larger role in how the events of that time played out.”

Tony huffed a sad laugh. “No shit. She messed with my brain. I thought... Well, we’ve been through this a dozen times and I guess it doesn’t matter now what I thought. I did what they said I did. I pushed when I should have backed off and now thousands of people are dead.”

“Answer me this,” Vision said. “If she had not planted visions in your mind, would you have started down the road that lead to Ultron?”

“I don’t know,” Tony answered honestly. “Maybe. Someday. But probably not without a lot more research, a lot more preparation, and a lot less desperation.”

“And were you the only one who set that project in motion?” Vision asked.

“No,” Tony sighed. “But...”

“Dr. Banner played a role in this disaster as well, but he is not here to share the culpability,” Vision said. “Indeed, all of the Avengers played a part in how the events took place. I am sorry if I am overstepping my boundaries, but I do retain some of JARVIS’ memories. Based upon his analysis of your interactions with the other Avengers, he felt that they took advantage of your generosity while simultaneously blaming you for things which were not your fault. It had become something of a worry for him. And for Ms. Potts, according to several conversations the two had.”

Tony walked over to the empty bar and longed for a bottle of scotch to dilute the pain he was feeling right about then. But there was not a drop of alcohol on the entire island. He’d made himself a promise after Pepper left and the whole disaster with Ultron: No more booze, no matter how shitty life got. It didn’t make anything better in the long run. In fact it just made things worse. His therapist agreed. In fact, she agreed rather vehemently with everything that JARVIS... Vision... had said to him. So did Pepper and Rhodey and Happy. They all agreed that somewhere along the line, Tony had laid down and let the team use him as a doormat. Especially Captain America.

Well, that was over now. Captain America and what was left of the team had made it very clear that they would be just fine without him. A part of him was relieved. His first instinct had been right: he didn’t belong on a team. Or maybe just not that team. Another part of him, though, was sad that the people he had thought of as friends had used him, blamed him unfairly and then tossed him away.

Tony went to the repurposed wine refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of fresh pineapple juice and poured himself a healthy serving before mixing in a little seltzer for the fizz. “You want some? No?” Tony took a sip of the tart drink and then leaned against the bar top. “Okay, say you’re right. Say that this whole Avengers thing was totally unhealthy emotionally, and say I share the blame around, that still doesn’t negate the fact that I was at least partially responsible for Sokovia. It was my actions and my technology that made it possible for Ultron to be created.”

“It was also your actions and your technology that led to my creation,” Vision countered. He hadn’t moved at all, only turning his head to see Tony as he moved. It was eerie, but Tony was getting used to the oddities of his synthezoid friend. “I do not condone the reckless disregard for safety protocols and trials you and Dr. Banner showed with Ultron or myself, nor do you considering you have always been quite vehement in your insistence that all of your AI's go through vigorous trials before being launched. That is why I do not believe that you will make the same mistake twice. That is one belief that is shared by myself and JARVIS.

“And let us not discount the effect the mind stone had upon all parties involved, including Ultron,” Vision continued. “If Director Fury had sent the mind stone back to Asgard as Thor wished, none of this would have happened.”

Tony let his head droop onto his arms and sighed. He considered everything that Vision had said and he considered not just this latest mistake but many mistakes made over a lifetime. “Well, I can honestly say that I don’t usually make the same mistake twice,” Tony said as he straightened back to his full height. “I may screw up royally in another way, but I rarely repeat myself.”

“I believe that your only real mistake was not discussing your fears either with a trained counselor or with those you trusted,” Vision said. “Perhaps they could have recognized that the Scarlet Witch had played with your mind and helped you overcome the irrational fears that she planted which led you to skip the safety protocols.”

Tony gave the newly born being a look. “You realize that the only one of that bunch that I ever really trusted was Bruce.”

“I do,” Vision stated. "Which is a testament to the dysfunction of that team and its leadership. Captain America was not trained to lead, nor was he in his right mind to lead, never having taken the time to mourn for his lost life, nor adapt to this new life."

Tony nodded and drank the last of his juice. “Well, Captain America is no longer my concern. I have you to keep me in line now.”

“Indeed,” Vision agreed. "And we both have the UN to hold us accountable. Not that they have called upon us often yet.

"They will," Tony said confidently. Right now, they were going through a greeting-to-know-you phase. Soon enough, the UN would be calling them out regularly. Especially since the Avengers were burning bridges with so many nations at once.

On the television, Tony watched as Steve Rogers stood up and walked out of the UN, anger marring his usually too handsome face. Natasha, Clint, Wanda and Sam followed him out. Rhodey was left sitting at the table alone. With Thor back on Asgard for the time being and Bruce MIA, there wasn't much of a team left. "It seems we're the only ones willing to work with them besides Rhodey." 

WINTER-IRON

“Boss, the perimeter alarms have triggered on the north shore,” FRIDAY stated over the blaring sirens that woke Tony Stark from a dead sleep.

“Yeah, I think I got that,” Tony mumbled as he tried to disentangle himself from his bed sheets. He was out of practice for these late night call-outs. “How far out?”

“Less than half a nautical mile,” FRIDAY informed. “And moving quickly at 4.85961 knots.”

Tony paused in the middle of pulling his pants on. “Vessel?”

“None detected,” FRIDAY said.

Tony swore and went back to dressing. Something moving that speed without a ship? It didn’t bode well. “Is Vision awake?”

“He is recharging, Boss,” FRIDAY stated. “You want me to wake him?”

“Not unless I can’t handle the intruder,” Tony said around a yawn. “The bleeding edge suit ready for battle?”

“Seems like as good a time as any to test it out, Boss,” FRIDAY sassed.

“Then let’s go kick some ass,” Tony said as he touched the newly restored arc reactor on his chest. Thankfully, he’d made quite a few enhancements that made this one a lot less likely to kill him in the long run. As he walked, the armor responded to his thoughts and just sort of bled out of his skin. Oh, the wonder of nanotechnology.

The island was not small. It was actually about an eighth the size of Nassau, at 10 square miles. That being said, it was only about two miles by air from the house to the north shore where the alarms had been triggered. It took him no time to get to the beach. He made it to the trees and settled into the branches of a rather large banana tree with a good view of the shoreline.

“The intruder is one hundred yards out, at 11 o’clock,” FRIDAY said quietly through the suit’s coms.

“Got him,” Tony said. “Any sign of a vessel? How far did this guy swim?”

“Best I can figure, he came in on a freighter that passes about 8 nautical miles north,” FRIDAY said. “Based on the freighter’s scheduled departure from Miami, he would have jumped ship about an hour and a half ago. At that rate, he's swimming at about twice the speed of the current Olympic record holder for the 10km event.”

“Damn,” Tony muttered. “This guy can’t be normal.”

“No way, Boss,” FRIDAY agreed. “Reminds me of—“

“Don’t say it,” Tony warned. “It isn’t him. He’s in DC playing soldier games with the rest of the team. They’re all confined to the compound while Ross tries to put them in jail and Nick Fury tries to establish SHIELD 2.0. It woulda been on the news if they were allowed off the Avengers compound.”

They were silent as they watched the man wearing only a pair of shorts trudge out of the surf and onto the sand. He shook the water from his hair, pulled a bag out of the water and ripped it open. From it, he took out a dry shirt and pants. In no time at all, he had changed into dry clothes and pulled on socks and boots. Then he began to arm himself. Tony marveled at how many weapons the man could hide on his person.

And then the clouds that had been obscuring the moon all night broke apart and moonlight spilled onto the man on the beach. Tony’s first thought was that the man was definitely not Steve Rogers. His second thought was that he was more beautiful than Steve, if that was possible. His third thought was that the man had a metal arm.

“Oh shit,” Tony groaned. “I think we might just need Vision after all. If I’m not mistaken, that right there is the Winter Soldier.”

“I’m not here to hurt you,” the Soldier called out. Tony didn’t respond because he was too busy trying to decide if the man had heard his conversation with FRIDAY. He knew that Steve’s hearing was pretty damn good, but even he wouldn’t be able to hear him speaking in his suit from more than fifty yards away. “I know you’re in that tree, and have been watching me since before I made shore.”

“Yeah, well...” Tony hedged as he flew down from his perch. “Didn’t make this suit for stealth. Though, that's not a bad idea for Mark 54. Harley suggested stealth a while back, if I recall.”

Tony landed on the sand twenty yards from where the Winter Soldier was standing. It was far enough away to get off the ground if the intruder rushed him, but close enough that he didn’t feel like a complete coward.

"Why did you come here?" Tony asked. "I'm pretty sure your buddy, Captain America has been looking for you."

"And that's one of the reasons I'm here," the man said with a smirk. "That punk needs to get a life and leave me the fuck alone for a while so I can get my shit together."

And yeah, Tony could definitely like this guy... if he wasn't a brainwashed assassin that had murdered his parents. "And the other reason?"

The smirk vanished and Tony's stomach dropped because he knew that whatever came out of the man's mouth next was going to fuck with his plan to send him right back to the mainland. "I need help, and I'm pretty sure you're the only one who can help me." 

WINTER-IRON

“Is this wise?”

Tony looked at Vision and shrugged. “No idea. But he hasn’t tried to kill either of us yet. And based on the surveillance footage from the Triskelion battle, if he wanted to kill us, I don’t think he would ask for help first.”

Vision hummed and floated from living area to sit at the counter in the kitchen. Tony was cooking breakfast, as it was his day. Vision was learning to cook and enjoyed the process greatly, but it was only fair to share the chores. The island, while idyllic in terms of privacy and luxury, was isolated and they did not keep any full time staff. Twice a month, a team of women from Jamaica came out to clean everything. Between visits, Tony’s cleaning bots helped keep the house clean, and Tony had made improvements to the bathrooms so the toilets and showers were cleaned automatically every day, but there were still some things they needed to do for themselves, like burning the trash, composting, and cooking.

“He is still sleeping?” Vision asked after a few moments of silence while Tony finished chopping the vegetables for their omelets.

Tony nodded. “I asked FRIDAY to let me know as soon as he wakes up. ...Viz, he asked for our help. I’m not sure I can turn him away without at least hearing him out.”

“And the fact that he is an alpha?” Vision asked.

Tony sighed and set aside his knife so he could face his friend. “I don’t know. I’ve been off scent blockers since we moved out here and, frankly, I don’t want to go back on them. I never realized how much they dull my senses until I went off of them. But I’m going to go into heat sometime in the next couple months, and if Barnes is still here, that could be a problem.”

Vision considered the situation for a moment. As a synthezoid, he didn’t react to pheromones, but he was able to smell them. “I could make sure that you know when your hormone levels begin to change, so there are no surprises. And by that time, we could have the north shore guest house prepared. It is far enough from the main compound that you could spend your heat there.”

Tony smiled and went back to chopping. “Good plan, Viz. See that’s why you’re my favorite child.”

“Of course, Father,” Vision said with affectionate sass.

“Daddy Dearest,” FRIDAY interrupted, getting in on the teasing, even if she didn’t fully understand it yet. “Sergeant Barnes is awake.”

“Direct him this way, baby girl,” Tony told her.

Moments later, a sleepy looking soldier wandered into the open floor plan living room and kitchen. He was shirtless, and his jeans were hanging low on his hips. Tony had to take a moment to remind himself why he wasn’t interested in mating with the super hot alpha. If all it took was a set of perfect abs, he’d already be mated to Thor.

“You like mushroom, peppers and onions in your omelet?” Tony asked as Barnes sat beside Vision and accepted the coffee that Tony handed him. 

“Thanks,” Barnes mumbled after taking a long gulp of the caffeinated brew. “Um, I’ll eat pretty much whatever you put in front of me. Where I come from, you don’t turn away food.”

Tony considered that. Barnes had lived through the Great Depression and his family likely hadn’t had much food to go around. Then he’d spent decades under the control of Hydra, and they certainly wouldn’t have catered to his personal likes and dislikes. More than likely, they had simply fed him whatever would keep him functioning at top condition without a care for what he liked or disliked.

“Alright then,” Tony said as he put enough veggies into the pan for all three of them. The three men were quiet for the next few minutes while Tony worked. Eventually, he asked Vision to set out plates for the three of them. There was plenty of room at the counter for up to eight people, so Vision just put out plates and silverware there. That’s where they usually ate breakfast. Lunch and supper were always at the table nearby.

By the time Vision had finished, Tony was ready to serve up the first omelet to Barnes. A few minutes later, he served Vision. Finally, he was able to take his place at the counter with his own breakfast.

“So, you asked for help,” Tony said between bites. “How about a little more detail. Why exactly do you need my help?”

“Seeing Steve, fighting against him, helped me break away from Hydra’s brainwashing,” Barnes stated. He set aside his fork and pushed his empty plate away from him before turning to face Tony and Vision. “But just because I broke free doesn’t mean that they can’t do it again if they get their hands on me. In fact, they’ve done that more than a dozen times when I tried to get away from them.”

“You’ve been on the run for three years,” Tony said. “You think they can track you somehow?”

“Not anymore,” Barnes said. “I made one of the scientists who maintained my arm remove the tracker before I disposed of him. If that hadn’t worked, I was prepared to remove the arm.”

Vision nodded. “You have disposed of all of those who worked on your arm?”

“And the ones that messed with my head or acted as my handler,” Barnes agreed. “I also stole all the information about how they did what they did to me, both paper and electronic files. And I killed all of the other Winter Soldiers. As it stands, I have the only copies of the Winter Soldier program files.”

“Wait, there was more than one Winter Soldier?” Tony asked.

“There were five others,” Barnes confirmed. “They were made back in the nineties from the serum I stole from your father. Plus the Red Room agents who got a watered down version of the serum.”

Tony stood abruptly at the mention of his father. He gathered the dishes and got busy cleaning up. Vision and Barnes gave him a few minutes to come to terms with things. After loading the dishes into the dishwasher he leaned against the counter and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Okay. So, my father was messing around with shit he shouldn’t have been and it got him killed. I knew that. Steve Fucking Rogers didn't have the nerve to tell me himself. Instead he just left me to find it on my own amongst all the other Hydra shit we had to weed through after he dumped everything onto the internet and put thousands of agents’ lives in jeopardy... I dealt with this then, and I got over it. I just... hearing it stated so bluntly caught me off guard.”

“The handlers used a combination of conditioning and deliberate, targeted brain damage through electrocution to control me,” Barnes stated unemotionally, as though he was discussing the weather rather than decades of systematic torture. “They used a series of trigger words to override anything. Those words remained even through the hundreds of memory wipes they had to perform whenever my brain decided to heal enough to let a few memories through. I have to believe that if someone got their hands on those words somehow, that they could control me again.”

“But you destroyed all of the data,” Tony reiterated.

Barnes shrugged. “I destroyed everything and everyone that I know of that was connected to the program. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t people involved that I never knew about. I can’t feel okay being around innocent people until I get those triggers removed. So that’s why I’m here.”

“You think I can help remove the trigger words from your mind?” Tony clarified.

“That’s my hope,” Barnes sighed. “But even if you can, there’s no real reason for you to agree. You have no reason to want to help the man who killed your parents.”

“You’re wrong about that,” Tony said quietly. He looked up at the guy who had also once been best friends with the guy who had kicked him off the Avengers. “Listen, I know what it’s like to feel responsible for things that you couldn’t actually control. I don’t blame you for my parents... okay, correction: I don't blame you anymore. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to kill you when I first found out. But that lasted about a week—a month, tops—and then I calmed down and I thought about the shit you had gone through and I got over it.”

“So you’ll help me?” Barnes asked, his face filled with hope, something that had been lacking since he had appeared the night before.

“Let me see the files you have and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do,” Tony agreed. “But you have to agree to counseling. Even if we get the triggers removed, you still have a lot of shit to work through.”

Barnes frowned. “I can’t trust myself around civilians.”

Tony smirked at that. “You won’t have to. Viz and I both do our counseling sessions remotely. Dr. Cynthia Hansen specializes in treating traumatic experiences, especially PTSD, and she’s the best in her field. I’m pretty sure she’d be willing to take on one more patient. We each do three sessions a week, two individual and one together. You’d be part of that if you want to stick around. After some shit that went down a while back, I think it’s vital for us to get help with communication.”

“Yeah, okay, I can do that,” Barnes agreed. “So, let me get you the stuff I brought.”

“That can wait,” Tony said. “First let me show you around. You’re going to be living here for who knows how long. You should feel like this is your home too.”

WINTER-IRON

“So, this is the main house,” Tony said as he showed Barnes around. “You’ve seen the main living room, but over here there’s a game room that has just about everything you could ever think of wanting. There’s a pool table, video games, arcade machines, and even a couple pinball machines.”

“I used to be an ace at pinball,” Barnes bragged with a wistful smile.

“You’ll have to prove that buddy-boy,” Tony taunted. “Up here is the movie screening room. There’s a 146 inch television. There isn’t a movie or television channel out there that we can’t access. I’m sure you don’t know a whole lot about that, but I’ll show you how to explore, and FRIDAY is always willing to help. They gave you some training on computers?”

“They had to,” Barnes agreed. “Some of the missions they had me do included industrial espionage or destroying information they didn’t want getting out. I wouldn’t know how to do stuff most people do with computers, but I can bust in and mess shit up.”

“Well, that puts you one up one your old pal, Steve,” Tony said. “Over here is the library. I rarely use it. Most of my books are digital, but the library was my mother’s favorite room, so it stays. You can help yourself to anything in there.”

“Thanks,” Barnes said. “What happened with you and Steve, anyway?”

Tony sighed. “Short version? I did something that I hoped would save a lot of people, but it didn’t turn out that way. Instead, a lot of people were hurt. I wasn’t the only one at fault, but I was the one that got the blame. Steve and the others asked me to leave the Avengers and I didn’t really want to fight them on it by that point, so I left.”

“And came out here?” Barnes asked as he looked into the third half bathroom they had passed since beginning the tour.

Tony shrugged and kept moving. He led them out to the courtyard. “I like it here, and my Malibu house was destroyed a while back and I never got around to rebuilding, so it was here, New York in the building I rebuilt for the Avengers, or my house in London. There are a few other places, but they don't have fully functional workshops, so they were off the table. I wanted solitude, so I chose here. I have since decided to sell the building in New York and have renovated my parents’ old estate up the Hudson. It’s close to New York, but still has some privacy. I started to design it for the Avengers after the last time the penthouse was destroyed, but then... well...

“Anyway,” Tony said. “You’ve seen the guest wing from the inside. And your room looks out on this courtyard. There are four other suites in your wing. The family wing has the master suite and three other family suites. Vision lives in one of those suites.”

“It’s a huge house, Stark,” Barnes said. “A lot bigger than three people need.”

Tony shrugged. “I didn’t buy it. I just inherited it and had it fixed up a few years ago. My parents used to host weekend parties here for twenty people or more. Anyway, let’s keep going. Over here is the pool and the pool house. There’s a bathroom in there and we keep lots of extra bathing suits, so you should be able to find something to fit you.”

They kept moving around the compound and Tony showed him his workshop which also held Tony’s office. Next to that building, there was the garden shed and greenhouse. Tony was surprised when Barnes perked up. 

“We didn’t have much space to plant stuff,” Barnes reminisced. “The whole building shared a garden smaller than your greenhouse. But Ma showed us how to grow our own veggies and stuff. I loved getting my hands in the dirt. It was the only time Ma wouldn’t yell at me for coming home dirty.”

“Huh,” Tony said. “Never would have guessed you’d be into gardening. I’m sure that Vision would love a little guidance. He’s been trying to grow some stuff, but he’s really not very good at it.”

Barnes looked around the garden and the growing tables in the greenhouse. “Not sure how much help I'll be after all this time, but... Looks like he’s putting the wrong stuff in the wrong places.”

Tony shrugged and led Barnes further along the path to the orchard where they had various fruit trees growing. Barnes grabbed an orange and began peeling it as they kept moving toward the beach. Tony showed him the pump house which drew water from the ground and purified it before sending it to the various buildings. Beside that was the building where the old battery bank for the solar panels and wind turbines was housed. He had switched the island over to arc reactor power a few years back, but the solar panels and turbines remained functional as a back up. 

Next they saw the boathouse and dock. While both Tony and Vision could fly to the island, the cleaning staff had to take a boat. And it was better to have a secondary way off the island in case of emergencies, so there was a smallish yacht and a fishing boat available for use. There were also several kayaks.

“This is one of five guest houses on the north side of the island,” Tony said after they had traversed quite a distance from the main compound. “I’ll be staying out here for my heats, so during that time, you’ll need to stay away. Otherwise, feel free to come out here if you need solitude.”

Barnes nodded and looked around the small house. It had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a small kitchen and a small sitting room. It really was very quaint. They explored a little of the island’s many hiking trails before heading back to the compound.

“Um, you’re okay with me being here and being an alpha?” Barnes asked as they neared the compound.

Tony shrugged. “I’m okay with it. Are you gonna be okay with the fact that I’m not going to go back on scent blockers?”

Barnes laughed. “Buddy, in my day, there was no such thing as scent blockers. Alphas were expected to behave like gentlemen and control themselves.”

“And omegas were expected to stay home and pop out babies, and not be seen in public,” Tony huffed.

“No way,” Barnes said with surprise. “Is that really what people think? Stark, omegas in my neighborhood couldn’t afford to stay home and be pampered. Most had to work, usually stuff they could do from home, yeah, but they certainly weren’t holed up away from the world. Heck, my ma took in wash every day. And my sister Rebecca, another omega, got a job at a factory when the war broke out. She used to write to me about the crazy shit that went on.”

Tony looked surprised. “Really? Because most history books talk about how oppressed omegas were before the war. Like the war was the big impetus for change.”

Barnes shrugged. “Don’t know much about history, but I know that most omegas I knew did what needed to be done, never mind what society said was proper. Maybe rich alphas could keep their omegas locked away from the world, but the people I knew... no way. And that was true for a long time before the war.”

“Huh,” Tony said. “Anyway, I guess my scent won’t be an issue.”

WINTER-IRON

“Hey Boss,” FRIDAY interrupted Tony’s office time. Tony was always happy when anyone interrupted office time, but Pepper gave him the stink eye through the video screen. 

“Sorry Pepper,” Tony smirked at his friend—ex-girlfriend—and CEO. “It has to be important for FRIDAY to interrupt. Gotta go!”

“Tony!” It was too late. Tony had already closed the connection. 

“What’s up, baby girl?” Tony asked, he was still signing the myriad of forms that Pepper had forwarded to him. He might hang up on her, but he wasn’t going to deliberately neglect his duties. 

“You asked me to let you know if any unusual reports came in about that spider guy out in Queens,” FRIDAY reported. “Well, reports have been coming in again. I was able to track his identity down, with only a .5% chance of being wrong. From there, I started monitoring his email and phone. Looks like he’s gotten himself tangled up in something big this time.”

“Damn,” Tony sighed. “How big?”

“His aunt is missing and he’s getting texts from a group known for selling weapons modified from Chitauri tech,” FRIDAY explained. “He is currently preparing to trade himself for the aunt’s freedom.”

“Shit!” Tony swore as he tossed aside everything and headed for the open doorway. Before he could do more than just activate the bleeding edge suit, however, Barnes was there.

“What’s up?”

“Got a super-kid in deep shit,” Tony sighed. “I have to go pull his ass from the fire.”

“Need backup?” Barnes offered.

Tony considered it. “You feel up to it?”

It had been three weeks since the man had arrived unannounced, and in that time, they had made no progress towards deactivating the triggers. Tony had been working on finalizing his Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing device and was almost finished, but there were still a few glitches to work through. Not to mention the fact that Tony was running the entire treatment plan by Dr. Hansen to make sure that he wasn’t going to make things worse.

“I won’t be around regular people,” Barnes said. “Just point me at the bad guys and I’ll be fine. Don't care about hurting them.”

“Alright then,” Tony said. “Get geared up. And wear a jacket; it gets cold at 10,000 feet.”

Two minutes later, Barnes was back and loaded down with gear. Tony instructed, “Climb on my back and hang on tight. I can’t hold you and use the hand stabilizers at the same time.”

Tony flipped the face mask down and they were off.

Tony made a call to the kid while they were in the air. “Kid, don’t do this alone.”

“Excuse me? Who is this?”

“Tony Stark, Iron Man,” Tony said. “Listen, I know about your aunt. I also know that you want to save her. But if you give yourself up, they’ll just kill you both. Give me...”

“ETA 37 minutes, Boss.” FRIDAY provided.

“37 minutes,” Tony repeated. “Give me 37 minutes and I will be there with a friend and the three of us can handle this together. Okay?”

“They only gave me an hour, and it’s already been twenty minutes,” the kid said and there was fear in his voice. God, Tony wondered just how young this kid was. He hadn’t asked FRIDAY for details, afraid that he would get too invested. Well, too late for that now.

“Listen, you start towards the meeting site,” Tony instructed. “Where is that, by the way?”

“Shipping warehouse down by the wharves,” the kid said and gave an address. 

“Okay, kid, I’ll meet you there,” Tony promised. “But stay on the line with me. I want to know you’re okay.”

“I... I can do that,” the kid said.

“What’s your name, kid?” Tony asked. “I can’t just keep calling you kid. And how old are you?”

“Peter,” he responded. “Peter Parker. I’m 14, almost 15.”

“Okay Peter,” Tony said even as he had to stop himself from swearing. Fourteen years old? “How about you tell me how you came to be able to climb walls and shoot webs.”

And so Tony kept the kid talking while they all made their way to the designated meeting place. He was shocked to hear about Os-Corp’s negligence—he couldn’t imagine letting a group of teenagers wander through a lab doing dangerous experiments—and impressed when he learned that the kid had designed the web shooters himself and reverse engineered and repurposed the webs from a sample he’d “accidentally” walked off with from Os-Corp.

“Kid, I may just have to offer you an internship when this is all over,” Tony said with admiration. “Listen we’re almost to your location. Give us another three minutes and then you can let the bad guys know you’re there. We’ll back you up, but you’ve gotta stall for a few minutes when you get in there for us to get the lay of the land and get into position, alright?”

“Yeah,” Peter said. “Yeah, I can do that.” He was quiet for a minute. “Mr. Stark, sir?”

“Yeah Peter?” 

“I’m scared,” Peter admitted, sounding like the kid he was. “Aunt May’s all the family I have left in the world. My parents are gone, and so is Uncle Ben. I can’t lose her too.”

“It’s okay to be scared,” Tony told him. “We all get scared. Especially when someone we love is in danger. Being brave doesn’t mean you never get scared. Being brave means you still do what you have to do, despite being afraid. And you’re a brave kid, Peter. I know you are. Otherwise you would have given up a long time ago. But here you are, still fighting.”

“You think I’m brave?” Peter asked.

“I know you are,” Tony assured him. “Okay. We’re coming in over the water. Get in there and distract them from our arrival. And keep them talking for a few minutes, okay?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Peter said, sounding more determined.

“Good,” Tony said. “We’ll see you in a few minutes. Oh, by the way, don’t mess with the guy with the metal arm. He’s with me.”

“Got it,” Peter said. “Metal Arm is with you.”

Peter ended the call.

“You catch all that, big guy?” Tony asked Barnes even as he was landing just outside of the security perimeter for the warehouse.

“Yeah,” Barnes said as he checked that all his gear had made it. “Kid’s a brave little shit. We gotta help him.”

“Alright, then,” Tony said. “Let’s do this.”

WINTER-IRON

Despite the fact that this gang was armed with some pretty impressive weapons, they still weren’t a match for the combined efforts of Iron Man, the Winter Soldier, and Spider-Man. Peter played his part perfectly, showing his fear and stammering out pleas long enough for Tony and Barnes to get into position. Once they were, Tony made his presence known and all hell broke loose. But when the dust settled, May Parker and her nephew were both alive and well, the gangsters were all tied up for the cops, along with their entire stash of weapons and their records of sales and sources for the weapons had been forwarded in an email to the DA’s office. 

The police were pulling up just as the heroes fled into the night. Tony and Bucky followed Peter and May back to their apartment, where Bucky chose to wait in a strategically advantageous position while Tony went inside.

As soon as the door closed, May was on them. “What in the hell? Peter Benjamin Parker, why are you running around in that costume? And why were those thugs threatening us?”

It was a long night as Peter fessed up to his new part-time job and explained how the gang’s leader had figured out who he was and, therefore, what his vulnerabilities were. Namely Aunt May.

“They abducted you so that they could stop Peter from interfering,” Tony said. “We got you out tonight, but they still know who Peter is. That means neither of you are safe.”

“But, he said he wouldn’t tell...”

May cut her nephew off. “No, Peter, Mr. Stark is right. We can’t depend on the word of a criminal. So, Mr. Stark, what do we do now?”

Tony paused and considered. “Well, we have a few options. School is letting out for the summer, so for the time being, I suggest you both come stay on my island. You’ll be safe there. That way, you’ll have time to decide what you want to do for the long-term. Once school is back in session, you can stay on the island, if you want, and Peter can be homeschooled. If you would prefer he continue with regular school, the mansion in Dutchess County is almost renovated, and would be very secure. Or you can take your chances here and hope that the gangster doesn’t give away your identity, or send someone else to attack one or both of you. You’re going to need to discuss what to do about the accords too. I know that Peter is not old enough to sign them, but the powers that be don’t and they could come after him. No matter what you decide, I was serious, Peter, about the internship. You show real promise. I would love to help guide your education in the sciences.”

May was frowning as she finally sat down on the battered sofa. “Wait a minute. You’re offering to let us live with you on your island or in your mansion, indefinitely?”

Tony frowned back. “Um... yeah?” He wasn’t sure where the confusion was coming from.

“Mr. Stark, we can’t...”

“Yes we can,” Peter told her. He knelt on the floor in front of her and clasped her hands. “I know I messed up. I know this is my fault. But... I can’t lose you Aunt May. When they took you... You’re all I have left and I can’t... I can’t let a little pride keep me from doing everything I can to keep you safe.”

May smiled sadly at Peter and stroked his face. “Peter, you’re all I have too. And I want to protect you too. But apparently, protecting you means something different than I thought it did yesterday. Yesterday, I thought I had to make sure that you didn’t fall into the wrong crowd and get hooked on drugs. Yesterday, I thought I had to worry about that older girl you took to the dance breaking your heart. Yesterday, I was concerned with how we were going to pay for your college. Now, I’m worried that men with metal wings could attack you. Now I’m worried about alien guns and bombs. I don’t know how to protect you from that.”

“I do,” Tony butted in. “Come to the island. Take time to think things over. No matter what you decide, I’m not just going to leave Peter on his own, hoping he'll stick to petty theft stuff until he's older. I tried that, and it was a mistake that brought us to where we are. So now, I’m taking an active role. I will do everything in my power to make sure that Peter is well trained, and doesn’t ever feel like he has to go it alone. That’s the biggest danger for people like us, Ms. Parker.”

She nodded and gave him a shaky smile. “If we’re going to be living together for the next few weeks, you should call me May.”

“And you should both call me Tony,” Tony said with a smile.

WINTER-IRON

“Kid’s an omega,” Barnes said when they were back in the air just after dawn the next morning. The Parkers were already packed and on their way to the airport under Happy's dubious care, where Tony’s private jet was waiting to take them to the island.

“And May’s a beta,” Tony said. “So?”

“Just noticed,” Barnes said. “You going to bond him?”

Tony huffed a self-deprecating laugh. “I think I already did.”

Omegas had an instinctive tendency to adopt and bond to stray children, especially young alphas and omegas. It wasn’t legally binding, but it was just as powerful to the involved parties as a bond with a blood relative.

“Good,” Barnes said. “It’s good for you and for the kid.”

Alphas always thought it was good to see an omega caring for a child, whether it was theirs or not. It showed the omega’s ability to nurture, a trait that drew an alpha to an omega. But Barnes was right about it being good for them both. The hormones that were released with a parent-child bond were beneficial to both of them physically, mentally and emotionally. Hundreds of studies had been done on the phenomenon that proved it. The only thing scientists couldn’t figure out was why it only worked with alphas and omegas. Beta children in an alpha-omega home were loved as much as their alpha or omega siblings, but they lacked that beneficial bond with their omega parent. Then again, science hadn't figured out yet why betas couldn’t form bonds of any sort. 

“You think they’ll want to stay on the island?” Tony asked.

Barnes seemed to consider it. “Maybe. But it might be better for Peter to be less isolated.”

“It’s safer on the island,” Tony argued, even as he agreed with Barnes’ assessment.

They arrived back on the island to find Vision waiting for them. “FRIDAY informed me of the impending arrival of two new guests, so I took it upon myself to prepare rooms for them.”

“They’re a couple hours behind us,” Tony said. “But thanks, Viz. I’m sure that they’ll appreciate the welcome.”

“My turn to cook,” Barnes said. “But I’m taking a nap first.”

“Me too,” Tony agreed. 

“I shall just tend to the weeding, then,” Vision told them. The other two were already on their way to their respective suites for long overdue rest.

WINTER-IRON

Life on the island changed drastically with the addition of Peter and May Parker. Suddenly, there was noise and mess and chaos. But it was happy chaos and none of the three men would exchange it for the quiet solitude they had lost. 

Tony’s days were filled with teaching Peter, and working with Dr. Hansen to help Bucky, and he still had stuff to do for SI, and he still had projects he was working on besides that. Plus, he was working with his lawyers to get Bucky cleared of all charges based upon his status as a prisoner of war under mind control. He also was was working with the UN to loosen up the accord terms, and to get Peter legal protection without making his identity known.

Most of the business and legal stuff happened in the mornings, while Peter worked with the tutors that Tony had hired to teach him over the internet. Then in the afternoons, he would bring the teen into his workshop. They didn’t usually work on the same projects, but Tony was there to help answer anything the kid needed and make sure that he was safe as he explored the boundaries of science. He even gave the kid stuff to research and do as homework.

Twice a week, Tony worked with Dr. Hansen on Bucky’s BARF treatments. Over the course of the summer, they successfully reprogrammed his mind so that the trigger words lost their impact. The third week in August, Tony actually sat down and read all the words—in English and Russian—out loud and in order to Bucky. Vision and Peter were on standby and Tony was wearing his armor as a precaution, at Bucky’s insistence, but nothing happened. The treatment had worked. Bucky was trigger free.

That didn’t mean that he was completely healed. He still had nightmares about the things he had done to people while under Hydra’s control. He still felt guilty. He still had gaps in his memory that he might never get back. And there were times when it felt like he was two people living in one body, but those times were getting fewer and further between. In other words, he was better. And, with continued counseling and treatment, he would continue to get better.

Just like the rest of those who lived on the island, Tony arranged for May and Peter to get individual counseling too. They were both dealing with a lot of grief and guilt. And they were added to the weekly group therapy.

The same week that Bucky was finally convinced that he was free of triggers, all of the inhabitants of the island sat down to talk about the future with Dr. Hansen on video chat.

“May and Peter, have you talked about what you want to do?” the relatively young brunette doctor asked. 

“We have discussed it,” Peter said before turning to let May explain.

“We think we should all be involved in the decision,” May told them. “I mean, with the bond between Tony and Peter getting stronger every day, and the way Bucky has gotten so protective-alpha over... well, all of us... I think whatever we decide will likely involve all of us. I can’t imagine any of you staying here without us if we go.”

Tony had to concede the point. Even Vision was invested in where they lived. Since the Parkers’ arrival on the island, he and May had become close friends. Best friends, even. Tony was pretty sure it was totally platonic, but they were very close and Tony was positive that Vision would follow them if they decided to leave the island.

“Well, Peter, how do you feel about the options?” Dr. Hansen prompted.

“I love living here,” Peter said. “This island is way cool. And working with Tony is even cooler. But...”

“It’s okay to say what you feel,” the doctor reminded him.

“But I miss having friends my own age,” Peter admitted.

“Very good,” Dr. Hansen praised. “May?”

“I miss my friends too,” May said. “But I don’t think going back to Queens is a practical option. Peter’s world is expanding and I don’t want to limit him. Not to mention that it still isn’t safe for us there.”

“You’d be close enough to the city to go in and visit friends if we lived at the Castle Landing estate in Dutchess County,” Tony reminded her. "It's less than an hour and a half by train into the City."

“But what about you?” Peter asked him. “You moved out here for a reason, didn’t you?”

“I needed time to get over some stuff,” Tony explained. “I had some unhealthy friendships that ended. I needed to figure out where I was at fault and where they were at fault, because I had a very bad habit of blaming myself for stuff. So I came out here to get over it and I’m over it now. Thanks to all of you, I can see how a healthy and supportive family is supposed to work. So I’m okay with going back.”

“I can’t go back,” Bucky stated quietly.

“Oh, yeah, about that,” Tony said with a smirk. “Got the word this morning. You’ve been cleared of all pending charges from all countries that are in the UN. Any convictions made in absentia have been pardoned. In return, they would like you to either sign the newly amended accords or publicly declare your intent to retire, but yeah.”

Bucky was staring at Tony with a slack jaw. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Tony nodded.

And then Bucky was lifting him into the air and hugging him like there was no tomorrow.

“That’s so awesome Tony!” Peter gushed. “Now Bucky can be an official part of our team. I mean, if he wants to be. Do you want to be?”

“Hell yeah, kid,” Bucky said with a grin as he sat Tony down and retook his seat.

“Well, then, it seems we are agreed,” Vision stated. “We will be relocating to the Dutchess County house.”

“FRIDAY, let Professor Xavier know that we’ll be by on Monday to tour the school and see if Peter wants to attend,” Tony said.

“Wait, what school is that?” May asked.

“The Xavier School for Gifted Children,” Tony said. “It’s only a few miles from the mansion, so Peter could commute every day. About a fifth of the kids there commute and the others board.”

“So this is a school for smart kids?” Peter asked.

“No, this is a school for gifted kids,” Tony said. “These are kids with special powers. Most of them are mutants. I don’t think any of them were changed by outside forces, like you were, but they’re all learning to deal with their gifts. You don’t have to go there, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.”

Peter bit his lip. “I’m not sure if I want to go to a school with only special kids. I mean, that’s like segregation, isn’t it?”

“Kinda,” Bucky agreed. “But I’m guessing most of those kids are there because they weren’t safe going to their old schools. From what I understand the prejudices against mutants has only gotten worse since my day.”

Tony nodded. “He’s right. Anyway, that’s not the only school I have lined up for you to visit. We’ve got appointments with the local public school and with a private school that is geared for exceptionally smart kids. We can check them all out and you and May can decide what’s best.”

“That sounds fair,” May agreed. She wasn’t sure how she felt about any of it, so she’d withhold judgment until they had visited. 

“Tony, what did you just do there?” Dr. Hansen asked kindly.

Tony closed his eyes and sighed. “I just organized their lives without consulting them.”

“Yes you did,” Dr. Hansen agreed. “What should you have done?”

Tony huffed and looked at the Doctor on the screen. “I should have talked to them and offered to help if they wanted, but not pressured them to do it my way. But I did give them options!”

“Yes you did,” May agreed and leaned over to kiss Tony’s cheek. “And we appreciate that. We’ll go to your tours and hear what the schools have to say. And then we’ll sit down and decide together as a family. Being in New York will give us more options, beyond the three you cited.”

“I could still be homeschooled,” Peter said, kind of liking that idea. “And get some socialization in other ways.”

“You could,” May agreed. “But let’s wait and see before we make any decisions.”

“Sorry, May,” Tony said like a contrite child. “Sorry Peter.”

“‘S okay, Tony,” Peter shrugged. He was just glad that Tony cared enough to be interested in his life.

“You’re forgiven,” May said with a smile. “And thank you for thinking of our needs. I hadn’t really considered where Peter would go to school, only where we would live.”

“I’m going to miss this place,” Peter sighed.

“Well, it’s not as if we can’t come back for school breaks and holidays,” Tony said. “The island isn’t going anywhere. In fact, why don’t we plan right now to come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“Alright!” Peter shouted.

After that, the meeting broke up and plans were quickly made for the transition back to New York.

WINTER-IRON

The move to the estate was easier than anyone could have predicted, other than Tony. Because most of the clothes they had on the island weren’t really appropriate for upstate New York in the fall, they simply left those clothes behind. And since none of them had brought many personal items with them it didn’t take long to pack those few things and load them onto the jet.

The flight was relatively short and they went directly from the island to the small private landing strip Tony had built on the estate grounds. It was part of the renovations he had done. There was also a small hangar that housed the Lear jet right beside the two reverse-engineered quin-jets that Tony had built and improved back before SHIELD had fallen. They were gathering dust at the moment, but with two team-members who couldn’t fly autonomously, they would get some use soon.

Unlike the island, the estate had staff. They had all been vetted by FRIDAY, who did a deeper background search than the CIA and SHIELD did for their agents, going back generations looking for ties to Hydra or anyone who had been negatively effected by Stark Industries. And the AI continued to monitor their interactions throughout their employment. They were as trustworthy as you could find anywhere. Two of those employees met them at the hangar and helped them load their few boxes onto one of two extra large golf carts before loading the people onto the other cart and driving them across the mile of grounds to the main house.

As they went, Tony pointed out various features that had been added to the grounds: the gym and training facility; the medical clinic; the power house where the arc reactor that powered the entire estate was stored; the various gardens and orchards; the workshops and labs which had their own separate building; the command center; and, finally, the main house.

The house they pulled up to wasn’t what any of them had been expecting. All of the out buildings that Tony had recently added to the property had been clean and modern, but their exteriors fit with the architecture of the new house Tony had built. 

The original mansion had been a replica of an old German castle built pre-Revolutionary War. According to Vision, Howard had bought it from an industrialist family that had fallen on hard times after WWII. Tony had mostly grown up in that castle. 

But the castle was dark, dank and extremely gaudy, according to Tony. Tony had always thought the old house was creepy and hated it. He had very few happy memories in that house, always preferring the house in Los Angeles with its light and airy feel. He would have torn the castle down if it hadn't been declared a historical landmark before he was even born. So when it became apparent that the Avengers wouldn’t be safe to stay in New York City indefinitely, after one too many attacks on the tower, Tony had donated the old castle to the county, along with a few acres surrounding it, putting up a new wall between it and the rest of the estate, and began planning and building the estate that they were now seeing. The Castle was now a relatively profitable tourist attraction.

The new house was designed in a Victorian style, but the interiors were modern, while still keeping with some of the architectural features of that era, like woodwork, built in shelves, stained glass windows, pocket doors, etc.. It was absolutely massive with a wrap around porch, three stories, octagonal turrets at the four corners of the house, three wings, and a courtyard that was visible as soon as you walked through the front door. It housed a flower garden, an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor movie screen, a fire pit and plenty of outdoor seating areas to accommodate a lot of people.

“Okay, so this floor is mostly common areas,” Tony told them. “Explore on your own at your leisure. I can tell you that there’s a communal kitchen, a dining room, a huge library, several sitting rooms of various sizes. There's probably a few rooms I forgot, too. Downstairs, there's a home theater, a small gym, a game room, access to the underground bunker, and a small security center, but the main security is housed in the command building, which was built when I thought the Avengers would be living here. Along with the security, that building has classrooms, meeting rooms, offices, and the armory. Here we just have access to the estate security and a few other features. 

“Anyway, those are the common areas. There are six suites on the second floor—not including mine, which takes up all of the second floor north wing—and there are four more suites on the third floor. This house was originally built with the Avengers in mind, so there’s plenty of space in all of the suites. They each have a private sitting room with a small kitchenette, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a large walk-in closet. About 700 square feet, total. They're decorated and each one has its own style and color scheme. You can certainly personalize them more, but we'll go over that later.

“Okay, then let’s go pick out your rooms,” Tony said and the others followed him up the wide staircase that split the main foyer. 

Every suite had a unique floor plan. Some had balconies overlooking the courtyard. Others connected to a second floor porch that led down to the back deck and pool. As they toured and picked out suites, Tony listened to Bucky and Peter discussing possible shortcuts using the balconies. Of course, Vision had to pipe up with the fact that he could simply phase through floors and walls.

“Please refrain from doing that in our rooms,” May laughed. “I think you’d give me a heart attack. And Peter, you stay off of people’s balconies unless they invite you.”

“Yes, Aunt May,” Peter sighed. 

“Oh my,” May said with a smile as they entered the northwest corner suite on the second floor. “Look at that view.” 

That suite had a terrific view of the lake and forest. It also had a small office in one of the turrets. 

“Well, I guess that May has chosen her rooms,” Tony said. 

“And I shall take the suite above,” Vision stated with finality. “I rather like the office space.”

Bucky shrugged and said he didn’t much care, but took the suite on the end of the second floor south wing, opposite Tony’s suite. It had a great view of the lake and pool, as well as overlooking a large portion of the estate. Because it was an end suite, he had a balcony over the courtyard and access to the second floor porch. And, with a short climb up the turret, he had a 360 degree view and could see who was coming and going very easily.

Peter simply took the closest suite to May once he was sure he would still have some privacy.

“Okay, so settle into your chosen rooms,” Tony said. “The staff will bring your boxes and stuff up in a few minutes. Then let’s meet down in the communal kitchen for lunch in an hour. We can go over the boring details and practicalities.”

Tony headed to his own suite. He had more room than the others, so he had included a very small lab—one where he could tinker late at night and tightly restrict access—a living room, and an actual kitchen besides his bedroom and bathroom. The suite also had a nursery. He had designed the apartment back when he and Pepper had still been together, and had been dreaming of starting a family someday. Now, those dreams were gone. They had never been very realistic, anyway. Pepper was a beta. They couldn’t have bonded and a natural pregnancy was impossible for either of them because of their disparate biologies.

Tony sighed. He was getting to the age when it would start to be harder for him to have a baby, increased omega fertility or not. He was already thirty nine, though he sometimes worried that he looked older because of the years he’d spent drinking so hard. On top of that, he’d had some serious medical issues, any of which could affect his ability to carry a baby. No, if he was going to have a child, he was going to have to slow down the aging process and improve his current health. And he already had a good idea how to do just that.

Since he’d fixed Extremis, Tony had been playing around with the idea of crossing it with several of the properties from the Super Soldier Serum. He didn't have the entire formula for the serum, but he had enough from his father's notes to get the desired results when mixed with Extremis. The new serum, which he called Omega X, should slow his aging, and have the added benefit of correcting the issues with his heart that came from years with a reactor in his chest. At least the reactor for his new nano-suit wasn’t actually implanted and wouldn't interfere with the new serum. 

The Omega X formula was one project that he’d been working on for the past three years, and he hadn’t told anyone but Vision about it. His youngest and smartest child had brought up all the arguments against it, and then had argued all the reasons for it, and finally they had hashed out the safety protocols with FRIDAY listening and learning from the process. The mice that had been first tested were still fine after more than a year and had shown very few signs of aging. There were no nasty side effects that Tony could tell. His only hesitation with taking the drug at this point was all of the results that he’d seen when doctors tested their own creations. Bruce just being one example of many.

So that project continued to be tweaked and tested, but never finished. It was one of the projects that would never go to his main workshop. It would always be locked away in his private lab. He would never allow it to reach the wrong hands.

Anyway, even if he actually took the drug and was able to carry a baby, he had no prospects for an alpha mate. Well, there was Bucky, but Tony fully expected that he wouldn’t stick around for long. Now that he was cleared of all charges, he was free to go where he wanted. And he was better mentally and emotionally, too. He could go find Steve and they could have their long awaited reunion. 

Even if Bucky stuck around for a while, it wouldn’t be long before Captain America found out that he was with Tony. And then all hell would break loose, because Steve Rogers would surely accuse Tony of trying to keep them apart. Because that’s the kind of person he thought Tony was.

Tony shook off those thoughts. He couldn’t afford to get too attached to Barnes. They could be, and were, friends, but anything more was out of the question. No matter how badly his instincts wanted to latch on and form a bond.

WINTER-IRON

The staff provided lunch that day, and would for five days a week, but Tony warned them as they ate that all other meals were on their own. They could set up a rotating cooking schedule, or they could all fend for themselves. It took a few minutes of discussion but they finally concluded that they would all be on their own for breakfast, but they would have family dinner together at least five nights a week, and have brunch on Sundays together, unless on a mission. They would rotate cooking and clean-up duties for those family meals.

“So if we’re on our own for some meals, how do we get food up in here?” Bucky asked.

“Well, that takes us neatly into the next portion of our discussion,” Tony smirked. “So, the staff here will buy groceries once a week. They'll stock the main kitchen with whatever we want. So if you have plans to make chicken parm on your night to cook, add what you need to the main shopping list. There’s a new app on all of your tablets and phones that deals with household requests. You can list it there, or you can just ask FRIDAY to add it to the proper list.”

“I would be glad to help,” FRIDAY piped up.

“Thanks Fri,” Tony said with a smile. She was definitely growing and learning. He still missed JARVIS like losing a part of himself, but she was starting to become important to him for more than just her ability to run his systems. “Same goes for your private kitchenettes. Anything you need, add it to your personal list. Once a week the staff will be in to clean your suite and will deliver your personal groceries at that time. If you need stuff in between, or if you forget to put something on your list, you can always go to the store yourself. We have an account there under Castle Landing Estate, so you can charge anything you need.

“Now, how do you get to the store?” Tony asked.

“Um...” Peter said with a sly grin.

“You, kid, ask for a grownup to drive you,” Bucky said before Peter could say anything more.

“Hey, I’ve only got another year before I can get my learning permit!” Peter protested.

“And another year beyond that before you can actually get your license in the state of New York,” May reminded him. “Tony, how do we get to the store?”

“The garage has a variety of vehicles available to use,” Tony said. “The keys are in a lockbox in the garage. FRIDAY will make them available to you and let you know if there is any reason you shouldn’t take a particular vehicle. Otherwise, take whichever one you like.”

“I do not have a license,” Vision reminded Tony.

“If you want to learn to drive, I’m sure we can teach you,” Tony sighed.

“I used to have a license,” Bucky smirked. “Pretty sure it’s expired, now. But I know how to drive.”

“I’m sure you do,” Tony sighed. “Okay, May, do you have a license?”

“I do,” she laughed. “Ben insisted I learn, even though we rarely drove in the city. Sometimes we would rent a car on vacation.”

“Aunt May’s a good driver,” Peter defended.

“Glad to hear it,” Tony nodded. “Because I’m putting you in charge of making sure that everyone who wants a license gets it. You don’t necessarily have to take them out yourself. You can arrange for lessons with a driving school if you’d prefer. I just... it’s one too many things for me to handle. Okay?”

“I’d be happy to do it,” May said. “And once we’re better settled, I can take over arranging the household. I can set schedules and liaise with the staff.”

“Would you?” Tony asked with obvious relief. “That would be a lifesaver.”

“I want to help any way I can,” May shrugged. “And that’s one way I can help. I’m very good at organizing things and bossing people around.”

“Okay, then, I’ll introduce you to Stephanie later,” Tony said. “She’s in charge of the household staff.”

“I could help manage the estate business, if you would like,” Vision offered. “I know all of the various areas of services and industry that you have included in the estate.”

“That would be great, Viz,” Tony smiled at him. “We can meet together with the various teams later in the week.”

“Wait, what industries are you talking about?” Bucky asked. “You only pointed out stuff that would be interesting to heroes on our ride across the grounds earlier.”

“Well, we didn’t really see much of the estate,” Tony said. “I mean, there’s several thousand more acres that we didn’t pass through. We have a farm that does research on organic ways to improve flavor and yield and control pests. We have a fishery that produces about seven thousand pounds of fresh sustainable fish each year as well as does research to improve sustainable fish harvesting. We have a winery that has won several awards for their wines every year for the last five.”

“Do not forget the dairy cows and the cattle,” Vision said. “Nor the orchards. Nor the apiary.”

“Yeah, those too,” Tony said. “All said, we produce a lot of food, including our own honey and maple syrup. What we don’t use on the estate gets sold. This estate has always been relatively self-sustaining, though it's never really made a profit. After my parents died, it was a bit neglected for a while. For about twenty years, the only industry that remained viable was the maple syrup and the orchards. But a few years back, about the same time I decided concentrate on green energy, I decided to use the land to research better agricultural practices. Healthier food and less damage to the environment at the same time. Practices that could be used in countries that are desperate for food. Using technology in new ways to streamline the process. So, most of the fresh foods we get here were raised here. We're still not making a profit, but the estate's not really costing me anything either. Plus we’re doing some really cutting edge agricultural research and helping make the world a better place.”

They all looked down at their empty plates and smiled. “Well, I have to compliment the people doing all that hard work,” May said. “I can’t remember having such tasty tomatoes.”

“Okay, so that’s driving taken care of,” Tony said, getting back to the topic at hand. “Next up, clothes and other personal items. Some of you don’t have many. And none of you currently has an income.” He looked at Bucky and Vision here, but the truth was that Peter had outgrown many of his clothes over the summer and would need some new clothes before school started. “Technically, you are all now consultants with SI, or you will be as soon as you sign your contracts. As such, you will receive a salary in addition to your housing.”

“Wait a minute,” May said. “You’re already paying for us to live here. Why would you pay us a salary on top of that?”

“Did you or did you not just agree to become the household manager for this estate?” Tony asked.

“Well...”

“So, as an employee of SI, you will receive a salary,” Tony smirked. “And the rest of you will be paid for any time you spend fighting or defending or even helping me do science stuff. Since the hours can be irregular, we’ll just set a monthly salary. Pete, no offense, but your hours will not be full time until you graduate from college. Each of you will receive bonuses for hazardous duty, just like in the military. I have contracts ready for you to review and sign after lunch.”

“So SI is paying us to be superheroes?” Peter asked.

“Well, someone should,” Tony huffed but then he shrugged. “Don’t worry. Some of the work we’ll be doing will actually be for SI. We’ll oversee security on any new facilities and upgrade the old facilities. You’re also acting as body guards for SI’s most valuable asset: moi.”

Bucky snorted. “Like you need our protection.”

Tony shrugged again. “It helped Pepper sell it to the board. Plus, the new Defenders division of SI will definitely operate at a loss and provide humanitarian aid, both of which are actually good for tax breaks for the whole company, so we’ll be saving the company more than we’re costing it.”

Bucky shook his head. “I don’t understand it, but I believe you.”

“Rhodey, whom I think only Vision has actually met,” Tony said with a frown, “Will be our liaison with the US government while I’ll continue to interact with the UN. We’ve gotten used to each other. Mutual disgust is a thing, right? Anyway, Rhodey will be a part time member of the team.

“Now, before any of you go and tattle to Dr. Hansen about me being high handed again, you don’t have to be on the team to live here,” Tony said. “If you don’t want to be part of the Defenders, that’s fine. We can find other ways for you to earn a living, either on the estate or out in the real world. But I wanted to make the offer. I want you to know that what you do for people is important and you shouldn’t have to struggle to make ends meet.”

“I’m in,” Bucky said. “Never learned to do much other than fight or work in a slaughter house. Let me tell you, fighting sure beats butchering cows any day, even if the cows never fought back.”

“I am willing to participate as well,” Vision stated. “I have said I would always be at your side, and I meant it.”

“Thanks, guys,” Tony smiled.

“I’m in,” Peter said after getting the nod from his aunt.

May agreed. “I’d rather he be with you than out there on his own. I know how stupidly stubborn he can be.”

“Okay then, until we finalize the contracts and get you paid, you’ll all need a little spending cash,” Tony said. “So you each have a prepaid credit card to use over the next couple weeks for anything you might need. Think of it as a signing bonus.”

Tony handed out the cards and each one had their names on it. “How much?” May asked.

“Five thousand,” Tony stated.

May took a deep breath. She’d never had that much at one time in her life. “Okay.”

“Now, if you don’t like how your apartment is furnished, just talk to FRIDAY,” Tony said. “She can order you furniture. If you need household items to make it more personal, same goes. If you need painters or contractors or anything else, let FRIDAY know. She has a budget for that kind of stuff and will let you know if you’ve come anywhere close to reaching the limit. Any questions? No? Good!

“So, on to healthcare,” Tony continued. “I showed you the medical facility as we passed it. We have more than 500 people who live or work on the estate, and the closest hospital is about 45 minutes away by car, so we provide 24/7 access to emergency care, but we also can arrange for any specialist to come out. For instance, we have a dentist on retainer. He’ll be out next week to do regular biannual checkups and cleanings for everyone on the estate. Including us. Anything that comes up at the checkup, he’ll arrange to return for follow up work. And if there are emergencies in, say, two months, he will come out again. Same thing for Ob/Gyn visits or any regularly scheduled health checks. The medical team has everyone’s full histories and will alert you when you need to have a test or whatever. They can arrange for almost everything to be done on site. We’ll all need to have our physicals completed with the medical team, so schedule a time to go see them in the next week.”

“I’m due for blood-work for my cholesterol,” May said.

“They have the ability to do that on site,” Tony told her. “Just remind them when you go for your physical. Though I would bet that they’ll remind you first. Any other questions regarding health? No? Okay then, let’s move on. Next topic: equipment. I will be providing each of you with body armor. Well, Bucky and Spidey. Viz already has his, and my whole suit is armor, so... Anyway, come down to my workshop in the next couple days to talk about design and to be scanned for fit. Also, bring any weapons you currently have and make a list of weapons you’d like to have. We’ll go over it together and come up with better options than you can imagine.”

“I don’t want any guns,” Peter said with a frown.

“Not offering you any, Underoos,” Tony taunted.

“Okay then,” Peter said. Then he paused and looked confused. “What are Underoos?”

“Don’t look at me kid,” Bucky said. “After my time.”

“I’ll explain later,” May chuckled.

“I’ve got some ideas on how to improve your web shooters and upgrade your suit,” Tony said. “We’ll talk.”

“Anything else?” May asked.

“Well, just the tours of the other facilities,” Tony said. “I’ve arranged for Michael, our facilities manager, to give us all a tour of the various buildings dedicated to the Defenders. I haven’t seen most of them completed, either. That will happen tomorrow at ten. Speaking of Michael, if you have any problems with something not working, or something breaking, let FRIDAY know and she will put in a maintenance request with Michael. Now, today is Thursday, and we’ve got the estate tour tomorrow, so I think we can schedule a tour of the local town for Saturday. We’ll all go and check it out. Then head for the mall in Poughkeepsie. If you want. It’s not mandatory or anything. Just...”

“We get it Tony,” Bucky assured. “And I’m sure we’ll all be there.”

“Alright then,” Tony said. “Here are your contracts. Read them over. Come to me if you have any questions or don’t like something you read. I was very firm with the lawyers that they should make it all very clear and understandable for laymen, so you shouldn’t get lost in legalese, but let me know if you have questions. I’m hoping to get them signed and finalized by the end of next week, so that we can get you officially onto the payroll.”

“Oh, what about our apartment?” May asked. “We’re going to need to pack it up and turn in the key to the landlord.”

Tony paused. “I’m assuming you actually want to be there?”

“Yeah,” May said. “We’ll get rid of a bunch of stuff since the apartment here is furnished and everything and I’ll need to be there to make those choices.”

“Right,” Tony said. “Well then, I think we should make it a family outing. I don’t like the idea of sending you two over there by yourselves. Even with a team of movers. So, what do you say, Vision? Bucky? Wanna move houses on Sunday?”

“Sure, why not?”

WINTER-IRON

Friday and Saturday went well. The team/family began to settle into their new home and learn more about their new surroundings. On Friday, they all took a tour of the estate and saw just how big the place really was. They were suitably impressed and Bucky was fascinated by the stables and horses and so Tony arranged for riding lessons for anyone who wanted them. 

On Saturday, they went to town as planned. All of them spent a small chunk of their prepaid cards on clothes. Bucky bought a few jigsaw puzzles at the toy and hobby shop in town. He said it was something his family always did together and they all decided to work on one together that evening. Vision spent most of the day people watching. He had learned to change his appearance to fit in with the crowd and enjoyed learning about other people from their interactions. Peter encouraged May to buy something nice for herself, so she bought a bottle of perfume. And Peter bought junk food until May told him enough was enough. 

Sunday, they all piled into the largest SUV in the garage and headed for Queens. A team with a moving van would meet them at the apartment later, but for the first few hours, it would just be them packing up boxes and sorting through stuff.

They laughed a lot as they worked, and May and Peter shed a few tears when they went through Ben’s old things from storage. Overall, it was a good time, until they were packing up the moving truck and a gang of thugs armed with hybrid alien tech attacked. 

That was a stupid thing to do, considering there were four superheroes in the bunch. It was all going well for the heroes until one of the bad guys got to May. Everything stopped then. Only Tony was in a position to take him out without hurting May, and that’s what he did, but not before one of the other thugs shot him point blank with the weird blaster he was using. Tony went down hard. The others finished cleaning up the last remaining thugs while May got to Tony and did her best to help him. It didn’t look good, though. He was bleeding out right in front of them. Nothing they did would stem the flow of blood.

“I have to go,” Vision said with quiet urgency.

“Where?” Bucky demanded as he continued to put pressure on Tony’s wound.

“Back to the house,” the synthezoid told him. “Father has... something that could save him.”

Bucky had heard Vision call Tony Father in teasing, but never in such a serious tone. He knew that the other would do anything to save him. “Go.”

It took barely two minutes for Vision to get there and back again; Bucky had never seen him phase over such a long distance before. When he returned, he had a hypodermic needle filled with a glowing blue liquid with gold sparkles in it.

“Viz,” Tony sighed when he saw what his child had brought.

“It is the only way,” he said. “You will not survive without it, and I will not let you go without a fight.”

Tony couldn’t speak, could barely breathe because blood had begun to fill his lungs but he nodded. Vision quickly injected the glowing fluid into his creator’s heart. They all watched with tears in their eyes, waiting for the serum to work, hoping that it would do something, anything, to save the omega who had made them a family.

Tony sat up abruptly and sucked in a deep breath. It was enough to startle all of those watching. Then he began coughing up the blood that had been in his lungs. It was kind of gross, as Peter was quick to point out even as he wiped tears from his eyes. Meanwhile, Tony had passed out, but was still glowing as the serum worked to heal him.

“We need to take him home,” Vision finally said. 

“We can finish the apartment and wait for the cops,” the head of the movers told them. May wasn’t sure where Tony had gotten these guys, but they weren’t regular movers. When the thugs had attacked, they had all moved in to surround her and they all had guns.

“Thank you,” May said. She grabbed the car keys from Vision, who had taken them from Tony’s pants. Soon they were on their way back home. It seemed to take forever to make the short journey, but when they finally pulled up to the medical building, the med team was already there waiting for them. Vision went in and explained everything that had happened and what it was that Tony was given. The doctors agreed that all they could really do was wait and see if the serum did its job. 

The whole family waited outside the room while the medical team worked to clean Tony up and hook him up to machines to monitor him. When the medical team left the room, the family entered and stayed there the rest of the day and through the night.

May, at one point, went to get food and coffee for everyone. At another point, Bucky left to go to the gym and break a few reinforced punching bags. He was back after only an hour, but he looked a lot less agitated.

It wasn’t until very early the next morning that Tony woke up. “Well, let’s not do that again,” Tony joked in a raspy voice.

“Let’s not,” Vision, the only one awake at that point, agreed. 

“It worked though, didn’t it?” Tony asked. “I didn’t turn into a freaky abomination?”

“No visible changes to your physiology,” Vision agreed. “And no anomalies as we have seen in Dr. Banner’s blood. As far as I or the doctors can tell, your body is simply healing itself.”

Tony sighed and nodded. “That’s a good. That’s what it’s supposed to do.”

“We’ll need to observe and note any changes,” Vision said.

“What exactly did you give him?” Bucky asked loudly, startling both of the others and waking May and Peter.

“Omega X serum. It is a hybrid derivative of the Super Soldier Serum and Extremis,” Vision said. “It was designed to delay aging and heal the body in omegas. It should have few if any side effects, but we have only tested it on mice to date.”

“You gave him an experimental drug?” May asked with surprise. Bucky was impressed with how perceptive she was, despite having just woken up after a very long and uncomfortable night.

“I did,” Vision stated without remorse. “I could not let him die. And I know from news reports that the medical field has not found a way to help those who have been struck by one of those hybrid weapons. They kill their victims on a cellular level. The longer he went without treatment, the more of his cells would have died, until there was nothing left. There was no other option.”

“We aren’t judging you,” Bucky said. “I’m just glad it worked.”

“Me too,” Peter said weakly. He'd been sleeping closest to Tony, with his head resting on the bed beside him. Tony smiled at the kid and pulled him into his arms. Peter gratefully scented Tony’s neck and was soothed almost instantly. Bucky looked on enviously.

“Come here, alpha,” Tony said when he noticed Bucky's pout. And then Bucky was lying along Tony’s other side, scenting him as well.

“When did that happen?” May asked Vision.

“I wasn’t aware it had,” Vision whispered back.

Tony glared at them, as their whispering hadn't been as discreet as they'd intended. “Nothing has happened. Just...”

“We’ve started a preliminary bond,” Bucky contradicted Tony without moving from his spot along Tony's side. “You know it as well as I do.”

“A preliminary bond isn’t anything,” Tony argued stubbornly. “It can still be broken.”

“But why would you want to?” Peter asked, lifting his head momentarily before dropping back down to the crook of Tony's shoulder.

“Because we haven’t talked about it,” Tony said even as he lifted his arm to stroke Peter's head soothingly. “Neither of us asked for it, and I won’t keep someone who hasn’t seen all his options.”

Bucky sat up and glared at Tony. “You think I want other options? You think I’m going to regret bonding with you?”

“Yes!” Tony insisted, though his voice was moderated to accommodate Peter's nearness and sensitive hearing. “Seriously, I can’t make a relationship work. I run people off all the time. And you’ve got Steve out there waiting for you. Steve who hates me.”

“Fuck Steve, then,” Bucky said stubbornly. “He was an idiot if he couldn’t see how great you are.”

Tony deflated. “He’s your best friend. I don’t want to get in between that.”

Bucky sighed and traced Tony’s cheek with his flesh hand. “Steve was my best friend eighty years ago. Could we be best friends again? I don’t know. Maybe? A lot has changed in the last eighty years, not the least of which is me. I’m not saying I won’t try to be friends again, but Steve’s gonna have to accept me as I am today. And that includes you.”

“You don’t mean that,” Tony said weakly.

“Yes I do,” Bucky insisted. “You are more important to me than Steve is. You helped me when I thought no one would. When you had no reason to help and every reason to shoot me on sight. You’ve brought us all together and made us a family, a pack, something I was sure I would never have again. You are the kindest, smartest, funniest, strongest omega I have ever met. Why the hell wouldn’t I want to bond with you? I would be lucky to be your mate Tony.”

“Oh.”

“So does that mean you’re gonna start courting Tony?” Peter asked guilelessly as he finally sat up and looked down at his adoptive parent and then at his potential step-alpha.

“If he’ll let me,” Bucky told the young omega. “And you’ll see how it’s supposed to be done, so you know how to tell a good alpha from a bad alpha when its your turn.”

Tony huffed a laugh at that. “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Hell yeah,” Bucky said and planted a soft kiss on Tony’s lips. “Gonna prove it too.”

Tony looked around at his family, all present for this momentous occasion and laughed. “Can we get out of here now? I’m hungry and we have places to be today.”

WINTER-IRON

They had to postpone their first private school visit for the next day due to the doctors not wanting to take Tony’s word about his condition, but they made it to the Xavier School in the early afternoon. The entire family went along for the ride, interested in seeing where Peter might go to school. Charles Xavier knew Tony well, and the two talked shop about their privatized super hero teams and how Tony had gotten the UN accords to acknowledge the mutant heroes without penalizing them, like the registration act had once done. Meanwhile, Ororo “Storm” Munroe showed the others around the school.

When the tour was over, Professor Xavier had one question for Peter. “So, do you think you could fit in here?”

Peter sighed. “Yes and no. I mean, it would be cool to have friends who I wouldn’t have to hide my gifts from. But from an academic perspective...”

“You are well beyond what most of my students will ever achieve in maths and science,” Charles agreed. “Perhaps we could reach a compromise.”

“We could teach you the humanities,” Ms. Munroe said, catching on to the Professor’s idea. “We could arrange your schedule to attend three days a week. Two of those days would be classes and socializing with friends. One day would be working with the trainers here on improving and controlling your powers.”

Peter shrugged. “Not much to improve. I mean, I’m pretty much as strong and flexible as I can be.”

“Are you sure of that? And what of your sixth sense?” Professor Xavier asked.

Peter frowned. “You mean that feeling I get before something bad happens?”

“That’s what I mean,” Professor Xavier said. “There may be ways to improve on that, as well. That talent may be more than you understand it to be currently. Of course, it may not. You are the first student we have considered whose powers were not naturally manifested. We would have to learn along with you.”

“Can I think about it?” Peter asked.

“Certainly,” Professor Xavier said. “I would hope that you would explore all of your options before deciding upon one. And even if you don’t choose to attend our school, you will always be welcome here, Peter. We have special events and after school activities that we would love for you to attend.”

“There’s a swimming party next weekend,” Ms. Munroe said. “Probably the last one before we close up the pool for the winter. There will be a number of new students there, so you wouldn’t be the only new face.”

“I’d like that,” Peter accepted. “And I can really still come even if I don’t choose this for my school?”

“Absolutely,” Charles said with a smile.

“Thanks Charles,” Tony said. “We should be heading over to the public high school. We have an appointment there in twenty minutes.”

“Tony, you will call me later so we can discuss the changes I have noticed?” Charles asked once they others had headed out to the car.

“Not much to tell,” Tony said. “But yeah, I’ll call you. And you can send Hank over later in the week. I know you want to. He can do his tests to make sure I haven’t totally fucked myself up.”

“Indeed,” Charles said dryly.

WINTER-IRON

At lunch the next day, after another school tour that morning, the whole family discussed Peter’s options. It was amazing how much their discussions were influenced by their group therapy sessions, even when Dr. Hansen wasn’t present on video chat.

“I liked the Xavier School,” Peter said. “But I was serious about it not being challenging enough. I mean, even their humanities classes weren’t that hard. Our classes at Science High were way tougher.”

“Well, what did you think about the public school?” May asked.

“It was awful,” Peter said. “They don’t make accommodations for omegas, their academics are a joke, and most of those kids were rich and spoiled.”

“What about Kinsey Academy?” Tony prompted.

“Well, the classes were tougher, but...” Peter sighed. “Can I just choose none of the above?”

“Talk it out,” Tony said as he sat back in his chair. “Give us your reasoning.”

Peter nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay, so X-men school. I like having that connection with other kids like me, but I really don’t want to switch teams. This team is my family, and I feel like if I was trained by them and worked with them all the time, I would feel torn to be part of their team. Does that make sense?”

“Yes,” Tony said hesitantly. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. Nobody would try to force you to switch teams.”

“Yeah, I know,” Peter said. “I just feel like I would feel that way all on my own. On top of that, I like learning from you. I like my tutors. They let me go at my own pace. No matter how fast or slow one of those classes is, I’d still have to keep pace with the other students.”

“That I definitely can feel you on,” Tony agreed. “Usually it’s moving too slow. But there are times when you need or want to stop and spend a little time on something, either because you don’t get it, or because it catches your interest. If you’re in a group of fifteen or twenty kids, you can’t do that.”

“Exactly,” Peter let out in a relieved rush. “I’d still like to take Professor Xavier up on his offer to help see if my Spidey sense can be something more. And also to hang out with the students sometimes. No offense, but you guys are all really old.”

They all laughed at that. “I’m younger than you are,” Vision protested, very much sounding like a younger sibling in that moment. One thing that Tony loved to see was the way Vision and Peter had begun to act like brothers, though they often traded roles, with Peter sometimes taking the older role as he showed Vision how society worked from a teen’s perspective, and sometimes Vision sharing his extensive knowledge with Peter.

“As the most ancient of the ancients, I declare you both to be brats,” Bucky teased.

Once the laughter died down, Peter turned to his aunt. “So, you okay with that plan?”

May nodded. “I’m okay with it, as long as you really are making an effort to meet some kids your age and have a life outside of this family. Someday soon, you’re going to have to go off to college, and you’ll need some social skills to do that, okay?”

“Okay,” Peter grinned. “You know, I’m not a total geek. I had friends at my old school.”

“One,” May teased. “By the way, I arranged with Ned’s mom for him to come out to spend a weekend soon.”

“Awesome!” Peter shouted. “And I had two friends. What about MJ?”

May narrowed her eyes. “You want me to ask a girl’s mother if she can spend the weekend with two teenaged boys?”

“She’s a bossy alpha,” Peter scoffed. “She’s more likely to spend the weekend telling me and Ned what to do.”

“We’ll see,” May finally said.

“Is that a let-me-think-about-it ‘we’ll see,’ or a no-way-in-hell ‘we’ll see?’” Peter asked before digging into his dinner again.

“It’s an I’m-going-to-talk-to-Tony-in-private-before-discussing-it-with-Ned’s-mom-and-finally-calling-MJ’s-mom,” May snarked.

Peter blinked at her. “Oh. Okay.”

WINTER-IRON

There were a couple side effects of the serum. Bucky was the first to point out that Tony was looking slightly younger. The serum had healed the skin that had begun to wrinkle around his eyes and mouth, taking some of the age off of his appearance. Less visible, it also reversed all of the damage he had done to his liver over the years of light drug use and heavy drinking—not to mention palladium poisoning—meaning the slightly yellow tinge to his skin that he'd attempted to hide with tanning was now gone. 

Another side effect was the way it increased Tony’s strength. He wasn’t at Bucky’s or Peter’s level, but he was definitely stronger than he had been pre-serum. That increase in strength also came with an increase in speed and stamina. He could go longer than before without needing sleep. He could run further, swim more laps, without getting tired. He could keep up with Bucky on a run...if the Soldier was running a little slower than usual. And his reflexes were much faster. Bucky decided that Tony needed to up his training in hand to hand combat in case something ever happened to the suit.

Lastly, it affected his heat cycle. His entire life, he had been a once-every-three-months omega. He could time it to the hour. Now, his cycle was all over the place. He’d had a heat a week before they left the island. Then, less than two months later, he had another one. Thankfully, it only lasted a day. But it was now only six weeks since his last heat and he was feeling the symptoms of pre-heat. 

“Father,” Vision said as he walked into the workshop. “FRIDAY and I have conferred and we concur that your heat will begin within the day. Perhaps you should consider returning to your suite.”

Tony set aside the welder and sighed. “I need to finish this. I promised Pepper. I can’t just hide away every three weeks.”

“That is why I suggest that you see Dr. Hank McCoy when the heat has subsided,” Vision said. “Please, Father.”

"Please, Pops," FRIDAY chimed in.

Tony sighed again, defeated by the concerned request of his children. “Damn it. Fine. I’ll go hide out in my apartment. At least I can still get something done in my workshop there.”

Tony stomped all the way from the workshop, across the compound, through the first floor, and up to his suite.

God, this sucked. Tony hated his heats. He hated feeling so totally out of control. He hated being ruled by his body and his instincts. 

Throwing himself into an overstuffed chair in his living room. Tony brooded. He thought about Bucky’s deadly slow form of courtship. In the weeks since Bucky had made his intent clear, the super soldier had: made him burnt cookies; taken him on three picnics, each of which had been rained out; picked flowers for him from the garden—which was admittedly very sweet, but the gardener hadn’t been pleased—made him cards with really bad poetry inside and really bad drawings outside; taken him to a museum that neither of them was interested in; and took him to a dog race. Who goes to dog races? People without souls, apparently. The worst part of the dog race date was the fact that Bucky had thought it would be cute. Instead, he was horrified by the way they treated the dogs like their only value was their ability to win races. Tony’d had to drag him away before he could punch out all of the owners and handlers.

Bucky was officially the worst woo-er in history. And to top it all off, he hadn’t even tried to get to second base. Tony had a hot alpha in the next wing over, and he couldn’t get him to do more than give him a few kisses. Tony’s life officially sucked.

Well, Tony decided, enough of that shit. He was taking this courtship into his own hands.

“FRIDAY, where is Bucky?” Tony asked even as his body began to warm up.

“Sergeant Barnes is currently in the library looking for a book on courtship practices in the 21st century,” FRIDAY said with amusement. 

Tony groaned. “Please interrupt him and ask him to come up to my rooms. Do not tell him I’m going into heat.”

“As you wish, Pops,” FRIDAY said. Ever since his near death experience, FRIDAY and Peter had both taken to calling him Pops. That seemed fitting, since Vision was now calling him Father without any irony at all. Tony didn’t hate it. In fact, it kind of warmed his heart to have his creations calling him their father. Dum-E, U and Butterfingers were his children too, though they couldn’t talk back and sass him the way FRIDAY and Vision loved to do. Or the way JARVIS used to do. He still mourned JARVIS, even though a part of him lived on through Vision. He was the first of his truly intelligent AIs.

Tony wondered if Bucky wanted kids. Most alphas do. He also wondered if he would love his blood children more or less than his robot children. What about his adopted son, Peter? Would there be sibling rivalry? He didn’t think so, but it was possible.

One thing Tony knew for sure was that he would take Bucky as alpha in a minute if he was sure that the soldier wouldn’t leave him when Capsicle snapped his fingers. Either way, he was having sex with Bucky Barnes tonight. He was done waiting for the old fashioned idiot to pluck up the courage to fuck him already.

There was a knock on the door, and Tony went to answer it. Bucky was standing there and his eyes went wide as soon as he could smell Tony. “Tony, you’re...”

“Yeah, I’m in heat. Again,” Tony huffed in annoyance. “The serum fucked up my cycle. Listen up. We have about five minutes before your instincts fully take over your higher brain functions. I want you to fuck me. I want you to help me through this heat, and preferably every heat after. That being said, you don’t have to say yes. And if you say yes, this isn’t an invite to bite my neck and make the bond permanent. In this century, omegas can and do have sex without being mated. Got it?”

Bucky slowly nodded. “You want me to fuck you but not bite you.”

“And you can say no,” Tony told him.

“Don’t wanna,” Bucky denied. He was finally shaken out of his stupor and came the rest of the way into the apartment, straight into Tony’s arms. “Been wantin’ to make you feel good since the day I met ya. Not gonna turn down the chance to do that.”

“Good,” Tony said as he scented the taller man. The heady scent of aroused alpha went straight through him. “Then let’s go to the bedroom and let nature take its course. And when my heat passes, I’m going to show you how to woo someone, because you really suck at it.”

All Tony got was a grunt before Bucky picked him up and carried him to the bedroom. Bucky’s five minutes of lucidity was up.

WINTER-IRON

Tony called up Hank McCoy the day after his second post-serum heat—this one lasting two days—just as he promised his children he would do.

“Best I can guess, your body is simply adjusting to a new normal,” Hank told him. “Based on the shortened length of you heats and your increased metabolism, I would estimate that when things settle down, you’ll likely have a two day heat every two months.”

“And how long before I regulate?” Tony huffed with annoyance at his inconsiderate body.

Hank chuckled. “I don’t think it will take as long as it did when you were a teen omega dealing with inconsistent first heats. That lasted about a year, correct?”

“A little longer,” Tony confirmed. “But I started earlier than most omegas.”

“Of course, that would make a difference,” Hank agreed thoughtfully. “Well, this time, I think you should settle down in six months or less. Have you noticed any other symptoms or side effects since the last time we spoke?”

Tony shrugged. “Just an increase in appetite. But we discussed the possibility already because of the increased metabolism. Oh, and the healing factor works faster than we estimated. I got a cut while working on one of my projects. It was significant enough to warrant five or six stitches. It had healed completely in less than fifteen seconds. I can have FRIDAY forward the video to you.”

“I would appreciate that,” Hank said. “Are you sure that you won’t consider modifying the formula to make it more readily usable to the public? Can you imagine what sort of breakthroughs we could make in saving people?”

“Can you imagine what evil, greedy people could do with it?” Tony asked. “You know about Extremis. And I’m sure you’ve seen the footage of Abomination when he was trying to destroy Harlem. That’s what people do with formulas like this one.”

Hank sighed. “I know you’re right. It’s just...”

“You want to save everyone,” Tony said. “I know that. But you can’t. Imagine the problems the world would have with overcrowding and food scarcity if we doubled the average lifespan.”

Hank shuddered and then sighed again at his response. “I see your point.” 

WINTER-IRON

Bucky and Tony’s first date after his heat consisted of a high school football game. One of the scientists who worked on the farm and one of the nurses in the clinic had sons who played on the team and Tony wanted to support them. It was an awesome night. Very few people bothered them. Only a couple little kids came over and asked for Tony’s autograph. The home team won. And Bucky loved the whole experience.

Score one for omega wooing.

Their second Tony-planned date was to the Apple Festival Fair in Ulster County, across the Hudson. They rode rides, played games, won prizes for each other that neither of them needed, ate too much junk food and generally had an awesome time. They had such a great time that they decided to bring Peter and his friends from the city—who were staying the weekend again—back the next night. Of course, Vision and May tagged along as well. And that was another great date night.

Tony tentatively bought a box for a Yankees playoff game and learned that while Steve had been a Dodgers fan, Bucky had always preferred the Yankees. So Tony bought the same box seats for all of the home games in the World Series when the Yankees won the payoffs and brought the whole family. Definitely made points for that one.

Of course, showing up to a public event several times in a row with the same alpha was bound to get the paparazzi interested. He should have known that he and Bucky would be splashed all over the headlines.

“Stark Courted by Alpha Yankees Fan” the headline ran, taking over the bottom half of the front page—the top half was reserved for the World Series results—and it was accompanied by a picture of them kissing happily after the Yankees won the night before. The rest of the family was in the background but weren’t named or even mentioned as being in their party. The article that followed mentioned how the couple had been seen together at the games several times and how witnesses noted that Tony wasn’t using scent blockers. Of course that led to speculation as to why. And then there was speculation as to who Bucky was, and how long they had been dating. And of course, how soon it would be before they were mated and bonded.

“Well, I’m guessing we have about three hours before your buddy shows up here looking for my head,” Tony said over breakfast the morning the news broke.

“Probably less,” Bucky agreed. “Since I’m sure he still gets up earlier than any human should, he would have seen the headlines before now.”

“Point,” Tony agreed.

“You think this is going to be a problem?” Peter asked with a frown. He looked up to Captain America, just like most kids. “Why would he be upset?”

Bucky sighed. “Peter, Steve is a good man, but like all good men, he has flaws. And one of those flaws is an inability to accept flaws in others. He’s an all or nothing kind of guy and he sees most things in black and white.”

“We all know that I’m a flawed individual,” Tony chuckled. “Well my flaws rubbed his flaws the wrong way. We tended to bring out the worst in each other.”

“Like Draco and Harry?” Peter asked.

“Kinda,” Tony agreed. “But neither of us is evil. We’re both looking at things from different perspectives and those world views clash. A lot. And so we decided not to be friends anymore.”

“And you think he’ll think you’re trying to steal his friend,” Peter surmised.

“Got it,” Tony praised.

“That’s stupid,” Peter muttered. 

“Amen,” Bucky agreed.

“And Draco isn’t evil,” Peter stated firmly. Thus the conversation turned to a debate on which Harry Potter characters were actually evil and which were just doing their best to protect themselves or their families in difficult circumstances.

Two hours later, FRIDAY informed them that Captain America was at the front gate, requesting entrance.

WINTER-IRON

“Where is he?” Steve demanded as he pushed his way inside, past Vision.

“I’m right here, Punk,” Bucky said with a grin. 

“Oh my God,” Steve stopped as soon as he saw Bucky. “Bucky? It’s really you?”

Bucky shrugged. “The one and only.”

“What... where... Damn it, I’ve been searching for you for years,” Steve said with a crack in his voice. 

“Well, you found me now,” Bucky said. “You gonna just stand there and stare or you gonna give me a hug?”

And then Steve was there in his arms and Bucky held him tight. The rest of the family had chosen to give them time alone to settle a few things before being inundated with introductions, so the entry hall was empty. Even Vision had slipped quietly away once he knew that things were going in a decidedly non-violent direction.

The hug lasted a long time and there were a few tears shed, but eventually, Bucky led his friend to one of the private sitting rooms and grabbed a couple bottles of water from the stocked fridge in there.

“I can get you juice or soda if you prefer,” Bucky said.

“Water’s fine,” Steve said as he accepted the bottle and drank half of it in one go and then proceeded to play with the bottle. “Can you tell me how the hell you ended up with Stark?”

“You,” Bucky said. “I’d gone on a rampage, cleaning up all the loose ends of the Winter Soldier program, making sure that they couldn’t get me back. Making sure that they couldn’t replace me. But when all that was done, I still had words in my head. Words that could trigger me to be the Winter Soldier again. Words that could hurt people.”

“God, Buck, I’m sorry,” Steve said. “You could have come to me. I wanted to help you.”

“You did,” Bucky told him. “You sent me to Tony.” Bucky laughed at the look of confusion on his friend’s face. “Man, your face. Seriously, though. Being around you helped my memory, so I would go back between self-imposed missions and watch you. Tony says I was being a creepy stalker. Probably right. But, I wasn’t ready to face you, yet; I was too messed up. You had so many expectations of who I was and who I should be. I couldn’t be with you, but I could watch you and listen. You and that Sam guy talked a lot. And one day you talked about Tony and how you wished he had finished some gadget he’d been working on because you thought it would help me. So I found Tony and asked for his help, half expecting him to kill me for killing his parents.”

“What did he do?” Steve asked.

“Well, he didn’t kill me, obviously,” Bucky chuckled. “Instead, he let me into his house and he spent months helping me get better and he got rid of those words in my head. They have no power over me now. He doesn’t think I know, but he’s also been working to replace my arm with a better one. This one sucks. It’s too heavy, it shorts out and man does it hurt when it does.”

“Are you...” Steve looked a little green around the gills about whatever he was trying to ask.

“Are we what? Courting like the papers say?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “That.”

Bucky huffed a dry laugh. “Papers say I’m courting him, but that was a total disaster. So now he’s courting me. He’s a hell of a lot better at it than I am. No burnt cookies and not a single date has been rained out. Plus, he took me to five Yankees games. We watched them win the Series. That was the best date ever!”

“Yankees suck,” Steve muttered.

“You’re just bitter ‘cause your team defected to California ,” Bucky laughed. 

“How can you be a Brooklyn boy and root for the Yankees? I don’t get it?” Steve fumed, but there was humor behind his rant. “After all these years, will you finally tell me?”

“Started mostly ‘cause I liked pissing my dad off,” Bucky admitted with an unrepentant grin. “I kept with ‘em ‘cause it got your goat too.”

Steve closed his eyes and groaned. “Ninety years of contrary. Why do I still love you?”

“‘Cause I’m your best friend,” Bucky said seriously.

“Yeah, you are,” Steve sighed. “Even when you pick a team I hate.”

“You don’t hate Tony,” Bucky denied, cutting through the double speak. “You never let yourself get to know Tony. And that’s on you.”

“You don’t know what he did,” Steve denied and stood up to pace the length of the room. 

“I know what he did,” Bucky said firmly. “He told me what he did. All of it. And he’s willing to own up to his part in the disaster that was Ultron. Are you?”

“He’s blaming me?!” Steve demanded.

“Nope,” Bucky said. “I am.”

“What? Why?” Steve asked, totally blindsided.

Bucky sighed. “Sit down, punk and let’s talk about how you got your dander up with Tony the first time you met him and refused to see anything different, no matter what.”

“He was an ass,” Steve said defensively even as he sat down.

“And so were you,” Bucky laughed. “I’ve seen the footage. FRIDAY is very sneaky and she likes me. She gets me what I want. She got me footage from the helicarrier, and from the Tower and from a lot of other places. You and Tony are just... you’re like oil and water: you only mix when the world’s being shook up.”

Steve huffed a laugh, unable to keep from being amused. “Yeah well. He started it.”

“And he let it go,” Bucky reminded him. “When did you?”

Steve sighed and dropped his head into his hands. “I didn’t. I held it against him because he wasn’t Howard. I was thrust into this new world, this new life and he was so much like Howard and yet he was nothing like him at the same time. And I was pissed and lost and hurting. For me, I’d only lost you weeks before. Peggy and Howard less time than that. And everyone wanted so much from me.”

“And you took that out on Tony,” Bucky said. “Because he literally wasn’t Howard.”

“You’re right, I was an ass,” Steve finally admitted as he sat up to face his friend. “But Ultron...”

“Ultron was a clusterfuck,” Bucky said. “And everyone on your team had a role to play in that. The fact that Tony was suffering from PTSD and having severe, debilitating anxiety attacks long before any of that went down should not have been a secret to you as his team leader. Considering you were all living in the same building, it should have been obvious to the entire team.”

“He never let me see,” Steve denied.

“You never wanted to see,” Bucky said. “Remember, I’ve seen the footage. FRIDAY saw. Hawkeye saw. The Widow saw, too. Ask her sometime why she didn’t say anything. I'm sure she’ll have her reasons. All of you have your reasons. You were dysfunctional as fuck, Stevie. And then the witch got into his head and made it all worse. She didn’t just bring up a bad dream for him, like she did to the rest of you. She planted shit in his head that didn’t go away. Every time he closed his eyes for months, he saw you all dying and listened to you blame him. She used his PTSD and anxiety and left a bit of her torture behind for him.”

“Wanda wouldn’t...”

“Really?” Bucky asked dryly. “This is the same woman who sided with Ultron. She wanted revenge on Tony so bad that she volunteered to let Hydra experiment on her. I know how fucked up those fuckers are. You gotta be psycho to let them near you. And the only reason she and her brother came around was because she saw what Ultron really was after and she wasn’t crazy enough to follow him into the apocalypse. That doesn’t make her a good person, Stevie. That just means she has survival instincts buried deep down past her crazy. The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.”

“She’s... changed,” Steve muttered.

“Has she?” Bucky asked hotly. “I wonder about that. Who was the first to suggest getting rid of Tony?” Steve didn’t answer because he knew that Bucky was right. “She still hates Tony for something he had no control over. I killed his parents when he was still a kid. So, bad people took control of the company and sold weapons to other bad people. Those bad people fired a missile that killed her family. How is any of that Tony’s fault? He was only nineteen years old when her family was killed—younger than she was when she volunteered for Hydra—and he was still in college finishing up his PhDs not running SI! She’s sick, Stevie, and she needs help. Serious help. I don't even know if she can ever be okay. Because she’s got power that could be devastating if she loses her temper. And you gotta know that if she comes after Tony again in any way shape or form, I’ll kill her. I may not be the Winter Soldier anymore, but he's a part of me and I won’t even feel guilty afterward.”

“You don’t mean that,” Steve denied, looking pale.

“I do,” Bucky vowed. “I will not let her hurt my family.”

“And Tony is your family now?” Steve asked with disdain.

“I intend to make him my mate,” Bucky said firmly, leaving no room for debate. “As soon as he gets over the fear that you’re going to take me away, he’s going to give in. And I can’t wait for that day.”

“He wants to keep us apart,” Steve tried.

“No way,” Bucky laughed darkly. “You don’t get to put that on him. He offered to call you the first day I showed up. And he’s offered multiple times since then. I chose not to call you.”

“But why?” Steve asked, finally getting angry with the right person. “You were watching me, so you knew I was looking for you. Why wouldn’t you...”

“I needed to be stronger,” Bucky told him. “I needed to know who I was, who I am, before I could let you back into my life. You have such fixed ideas of who I am and what I should be... And I don’t think I can be that person anymore, if I ever was. I needed to figure out who I am now, with Bucky and the Winter Soldier all wrapped up in one package. He was created from a part of me that you never wanted to see. And he's still a part of me. With all the guilt and anger and fear of seventy years of torture and brainwashing, I needed time to figure out who I am now, not find a way to become who you wanted me to be. Do you understand that Steve?”

Steve had to think about it, really think. “I think so. I’m not the same guy I was then either. I’ve suffered losses. I’ve felt betrayal. I mourned. It changes a person.”

“It does,” Bucky agreed. “They didn’t give you time to figure all that out when you woke up, and I'm sorry about that, but can you begrudge me the fact that I took that time for myself?”

Steve closed his eyes and gave a sad chuckle. “Just, why’d it have to be with Tony?”

“Wasn’t with him the whole time, Punk,” Bucky said. “Just the last six months or so. When I left DC, I spent almost a year in the wilderness. Then I went hunting. I’ve only been with Tony since April.”

“I never smelled him,” Steve said out of nowhere.

“He was on scent blockers,” Bucky agreed warily.

“He didn’t smell like anything,” Steve said. “I’ve met other omegas since then who were on blockers too. It creeps me out every time.”

Bucky scowled. “Are you telling me that all this shit is because he didn’t smell right? Fuck Steve... I don’t know what to make of that. I thought you were a better person than that.”

“Me too,” Steve said sadly.

They were silent for a while, both drinking the rest of their water. Eventually, Steve asked, “How did Tony break whatever Wanda had on him?”

“He went to see Stephen Strange,” Bucky said. “Sorcerer who works out of Bleecker Street in the city. Once the spell or whatever was broken, Tony was able to heal. He’s still healing, but then again we all are. We all have therapy, individual and together. We don’t hide shit from each other. We talk it all out. We aren’t going to repeat your team’s mistakes.”

“I came here to ask you to come back with me,” Steve admitted.

“I know,” Bucky said. “But you know I can’t do that. My place is here, with Tony. And even if it wasn’t, I can’t be part of a team like that. It’s toxic. And I can’t let myself be around someone who has the power to control my mind without the morals to control herself. Had enough of that shit for several lifetimes.”

Steve shook his head sadly. “I thought we’d be together forever.”

Bucky pulled him into a hug. “Man, we can be, but just not right now. Get your shit together and then we can work on how to make this work, okay?”

Steve pulled back and nodded. “Okay. You swear a lot more than you ever used to.”

Bucky barked out a surprised laugh. “And you still sound like a Sunday School teacher most of the time. But I remember you letting a few choice words out when you’re really pissed. You aren’t the paragon of virtue that the world sees. You never were. You really need to remember that, because who wants to hang around a paragon?”

“No one,” Steve said sadly.

“Figure your shit out, Stevie,” Bucky repeated. “Take a time out. Figure out who you are, who you want to be. Don’t listen to what other people want. Figure out what you want. Then get back to me.”

WINTER-IRON

“Your friend didn’t stay long,” Tony stated when they retired to the master suite later that night. They had begun spending most nights in Tony’s room. He wasn’t ready to mate, and he wasn’t ready to officially move in together, but Tony really liked having Bucky by him at night, and waking up together every morning.

“He heard a few difficult truths,” Bucky stated. “Told him to figure his shit out and get back to me. I also told him my place is here with you. I think maybe you need to hear that again, too.”

Tony blinked up at his alpha—and Bucky was his alpha, even if they hadn’t bonded yet—with something reminiscent of awe. “You really... for me?”

“You’re mine,” Bucky said as he held Tony tighter. “He’ll figure out how to deal with that. But it wasn’t just for you. I had to remind him that we aren’t the same people we were back then. And going back isn’t an option, for either of us. He needs to figure out who he is and what he wants to be in this time and place instead of trying to live in the past.”

Tony huffed a pleased laugh. “You, James Buchanan Barnes, are way too good for me.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the other way around,” Bucky chided as he pulled Tony into his arms and then kissed him deeply, passionately. “You are the most amazing man I know.”

“I’m a work in progress,” Tony demurred.

“We all are,” Bucky said. “And I’m so impressed by the progress you’ve made in your life. That’s what makes you so fucking special. You don’t just lie down and give up. You make mistakes—just like we all do—but then you work your ass off to make it right. You are constantly changing and growing and I love that about you. You make me want to keep changing and growing, too. You make me want to never give up.”

Tony chuckled. “You know the history books all talk about Steve’s dream of being an artist. Not one of them mention’s your tendency towards the poetic.”

“I’m no poet,” Bucky scoffed.

“Oh I know it,” Tony teased. “Your horrible poetry on those cards is proof enough. But I bet you used to read and memorize poetry all the time to impress girls.”

Bucky flushed and turned to lead Tony to the bedroom. “Let’s go to bed, doll.”

“I didn’t hear a no,” Tony laughed even as he allowed Bucky to lead him.

More than an hour later, when they were cleaned up and sated and ready to drift off to sleep for the night, Bucky said into the darkness:  
“Love is more thicker than forget  
more thinner than recall  
more seldom than a wave is wet  
more frequent than to fail

It's most mad and moonly  
and less it shall unbe  
than all the sea which only  
is deeper than the sea

Love is more always than to win  
less never than alive  
less bigger than the least begin  
less litter than forgive

It's most sane and sunly  
and more it cannot die  
than all the sky which only  
is higher than the sky”

“E.E. Cummings,” Tony responded. “After your time. Giving yourself away.”

“Not after my time,” Bucky corrected him. “Just didn’t get popular until later. But I’ve read him recently. I like him.”

“Me too,” Tony said. “He’s a better poet than you. But I like you better.”

Bucky smiled into the darkness.

WINTER-IRON

There was another unexpected visitor to the estate that fall. The first week in November, James "Logan" Howlett, aka Wolverine, arrived at the estate's gates with a duffle bag and nothing else.

"You makin’ a team?" Logan asked Tony when he was eventually let into the Command Center where the entire team was waiting for him.

"Already have," Tony said. "Have the UN's backing and everything."

Logan grunted with a scowl. "Hate the government."

Tony chuckled. "I'm well aware of that. Charles has told me some interesting stories over the years."

"Yeah well," Logan muttered before taking a deep breath. "Need a new team."

"Things not going well with Cyclops?" Tony asked sympathetically. He and Logan had occasionally commiserated over a beer or twelve through the years.

"Jean's pregnant," Logan said. He eyed the rest of the team before turning back to Tony. "So, you want me or not?"

"Shit, sorry man," Tony sighed. "Yeah, we'll take you on. But you gotta know we have a few team rules that I doubt you'll like."

Wolverine snorted with disgust. "Heard about the therapy. I won't promise to be enthusiastic, but I'll cooperate."

"You really must be desperate. The government and therapy and you're still willing to join us," Tony said. "Alright, Viz, you want to go with Wolvie, here to find May and pick out a suite?"

Once they were headed for the house, Bucky turned to Tony. "I don't like him."

Tony waved him off. "You don't like the fact that he's an alpha and we haven't mated yet."

Bucky suddenly grinned at his lover. "You said yet. That means you acknowledge that it WILL happen."

Tony just rolled his eyes. "Peter, let's get back to the labs and leave this peacock to his strutting."

WINTER-IRON

The holiday season came. Since Peter didn’t have to be in school, and could continue his tutoring anywhere, they decided to leave for the island before Thanksgiving and didn’t return until January. It was an amazing break from routine. Only Logan remained behind, stating that he was not built for Caribbean climates.

Once back at the estate, however, the team was called in by the UN for a crisis in Kenya. Tony, Bucky, Logan and Vision spent three weeks there trying to get rid of a group of slavers who were using alien hybrid weapons to steal innocent girls and boys to sell on the black market. They were successful, but hadn’t been allowed to go after the weapons makers because they were in Kazakhstan, whose government wouldn’t invite outsiders in.

One interesting thing about that mission was meeting the Black Panther. Tony and Logan had both heard rumors about the enhanced hero out of Africa, and had to admit that he lived up to the hype. And then he disappeared again once everything was over.

They hadn’t even made it all the way back to the US after that mission before Stark Industries called them to oversee the security for a new manufacturing plant in Utah. They spent one night at home with Peter and May before Tony, Vision, Logan and Bucky headed off to do the jobs that SI was paying them to do. Two weeks later, they were back just in time for Tony’s heat, and then they had to be off again to Cambodia, where one of the manufacturing plants was facing issues due to local rebels attacking. That time they were gone for a month. By the time things settled down, it was late March.

Their second night home, Peter was curled into Tony’s side in the main living room, while they watched Star Wars for the hundredth time. Peter had been clingy since they had arrived back at the estate and hadn’t let Tony out of his sight other than to go to the bathroom since the day before. They had stretched the parental bond a lot with the prolonged absences and Peter was desperate to reestablish their link. Truth be told, so was Tony. He hated being gone from Peter for so long.

May, Bucky and Vision were doing a puzzle at the nearby game table, and Logan was in the courtyard smoking a cigar. The group at the table were giving the two on the sofa fond looks every once in a while. They were all content to be exactly where they were.

And then FRIDAY interrupted. “Sorry, Pops,” she said and the regret was apparent in her tone. “The head of the UN Security Council is on the line for you.”

“No,” Peter said firmly. “Pops, just... no.”

“I have to at least hear them out,” Tony sighed. “Put them on the big screen, Fri.”

Tony didn’t bother to sit up and Peter just clung tighter when the chairman of the council appeared on screen. “We have a situation in DC.”

“What sort of situation?” Tony asked. 

“The Avengers have split,” Chairman Ingall told them. “Several of the team were in talks about signing the accords, but two,The Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, continued to be violently opposed to the accords, even after all of the changes we have made. When the other four chose to come to the UN today, those two attacked, blocking them from leaving the compound. Black Widow was injured but was able to escape and is in stable condition at Bethesda. We believe that Falcon, Ant Man and Captain America have been compromised along with most of the SHIELD staff that was manning the compound, where they have blockaded themselves in, creating a siege situation. We believe that the Scarlet Witch is controlling them. At this time, we cannot be sure if Hawkeye is compromised or if he was acting on his own free will. Either way, we need your help.”

Tony sighed and sat up. He looked around at his team and got tired nods from Bucky and Vision. 

“I’m going,” Peter said stubbornly.

Tony glanced at the screen. They hadn’t officially told the Security Council of Spider-Man’s identity, though with Peter’s sudden appearance in Tony’s life at the same time that Spider-man began being seen with Iron Man, there was a lot of speculation. But they had agreed that it would likely come out eventually. Tony guessed now was the time.

“I don’t want you near that witch,” Tony told him.

“So we get someone to help us keep her distracted,” Peter shrugged. “But you’re going to need my help. If she's controlling them, they won't be pulling their punches like they would if they were in their right minds.”

“He’s right,” Bucky sighed. “They have some heavy hitters. A little extra help would be good. Plus, no matter what that witch did to him, I can’t imagine Steve hurting a kid.”

Tony sighed. “Yeah, okay, you can come.”

“You should call that guy who helped you break her spell,” May suggested. 

“Good Idea,” Tony grinned at her. “Dr. Strange has been pissed about Scarlet Witch since he removed her work from my mind. I think he’d like to help us out.”

“You will have assistance from the US military at your disposal,” Chariman Ingall stated. “Col. Rhodes is heading that contingent and they are already in place around the outside of the compound awaiting your arrival.”

“Rhodey!” Tony exclaimed happily. “Yay! Okay boys, let’s get a move on. I have a call to make and then we’ll head out.”

Five minutes later, they were in the hangar when Stephen Strange stepped through a portal and joined them on the quin-jet. “What’s the plan?”

WINTER-IRON

It was definitely a close thing. None of them wanted to hurt people who weren’t in their right minds, so they had to come up with ways to incapacitate without injuring. Even Wolverine agreed to keep his claws sheathed unless absolutely necessary. 

The soldiers on their side were armed with riot gear and gas masks, protecting them from canisters of sleeping gas that Tony disbursed over the compound. It took out more than two thirds of the mind-controlled SHIELD agents, making infiltration of the compound much easier. 

But just because they could get in didn’t make it a walk in the park. They were going up against Avengers who weren’t pulling their punches. Tony and Rhodey worked with the soldiers to corral the SHIELD agents. Tony also used a device he developed to keep Ant Man from being able to change sizes, neutralizing Scott Lang before he even got into the fight. Bucky and Logan kept Steve busy. Peter was having fun taunting Clint and Sam, though Tony had to pull him out of a couple close calls.

That left Strange and Vision to get to the witch. 

“I do not wish to harm you, Ms. Maximoff,” Vision stated calmly as he dodged yet another energy blast from her. “But I will not allow you to continue to control and hurt others.”

“You have no choice,” She screamed at them. “You cannot stop me.”

And that’s when she made her big mistake. She tried to mind control Vision—whose mind was not organic, nor was it digital like Ultron's—and Stephen—who was a much stronger practitioner of magic. The result was Stephen taking control of the link while she stumbled over the strangeness that was Vision’s mind. In moments, he had shut her down. Not only did she lose control of the Avengers and the SHIELD agents, but she had no control over herself. Strange locked her away in her own mind, where she could not hurt anyone.

“What did you do?” Tony asked, when he realized that everyone had stopped fighting and were just standing around looking relieved to have their minds back.

“I locked her in her own mind,” Stephen said. “Think of it like being in a dream. Only she can’t wake up unless I let her out or someone more powerful than I am breaks the spell.”

“Huh,” Tony said. “Who’s more powerful than you? Anyone we need to worry about?” The rest of their team, along with the Avengers, had surrounded them by now.

“So far, I have never encountered anyone more powerful than I am in this dimension,” Strange said with a shrug.

“Will it hurt her?” Steve asked with concern.

Bucky rolled his eyes but let Strange answer. “It will not. However it is not a permanent solution. She needs training. She needs guidance and counseling. Her mind is a mess of self-righteous anger and delusions that your team has fostered by coddling her. You have done her a disservice. She should have gotten help long ago.” He didn't say what would happen if she was beyond his help, but they could all tell that it wouldn't be good.

“We offered,” Steve said defensively. “She refused.”

“And I bet you just let it go at that,” Tony scoffed. “Because you don't want to see how fucked up your team can be.”

“I will give you some leniency, as she was using a mild control on all of you to manipulate you to be sympathetic to her,” Strange continued. “But it was not strong enough to absolve you of the mistakes you have made.”

“She was in my head,” Hawkeye mumbled. He was off to the side, sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. “She was in my head... I can’t... I can’t do this anymore. I can’t... No more.”

“It’s okay, Clint,” Sam told him as he sat beside him. “It’s going to be okay.”

Tony wasn’t sure that was true, but he hoped it was.

WINTER-IRON

When Stephen opened a portal to Kamar-Taj and left with the witch in tow, they took a good look around and noticed that the Avengers compound was completely destroyed. While Steve, Sam and Clint tried to scrounge a few of their personal possessions from the rubble, the others held a team meeting with May on video chat.

“If you think that they can behave,” Bucky said, “then I’m okay inviting them.”

“But they have to treat you with respect, Tony,” May said firmly. “That has to be made clear. No one has the right to disrespect you in your own home or blame you for stuff that isn't your fault.”

“And they have to agree to counseling,” Peter added. “House rules.”

“I think we offer a trial run,” Tony finally said. “If it works out, great. If not, they have a place to stay until they can get on their feet again.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Bucky agreed.

That’s how they ended up with Sam, Steve and Natasha moving into the estate. Scott went back to California to be closer to his daughter and Clint, after one too many mind-fucks, went home to be with his wife and kids. Neither man, however, said no to Tony’s offer of Dr. Hansen’s services and even agreed to occasionally participate in the group sessions. Who knew, they may be needed someday in the future.

WINTER-IRON

The new guests took some time to get the hang of life on the estate. And for a long time, there was definitely a division between the two teams. It wasn't until Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, showed up that things began to change.

“Who are you again?” Tony snarked after Carol called a team meeting. 

“The person you asked to lead this dysfunctional team of heroes,” Carol snarked right back at him.

“That’s right,” Tony snapped his fingers and said with false enthusiasm. “The person Nick Fury called the greatest hero ever. I think the guy’s a little biased, if you ask me. I’m pretty sure he has a crush. Not that I blame him, or anything.”

“Shut up, love,” Bucky told his lover and soon to be mate. “You hired her, so let her do her job.”

“I’m letting!” Tony insisted. “This is me letting her do her job.”

“Ma’am,” Steve piped up. “Can I ask what the purpose of this meeting is?”

“It’s to figure out why you’re all here,” Carol said. Her back was straight, giving away her military background. The fact that she had earned her rank as Major was evident in every move she made. “Tony was right to get you all into therapy, but the truth is, therapy will only help if you’re willing to work at it. And group therapy only works if you trust the others in your group. So, let’s figure out if we can all trust each other.”

“Not sure why I’m needed?” Clint said from one of the view screens.

“Me neither,” Scott agreed from another view screen.

“Because you have agreed to act as reserve members of this team,” Carol reminded them. “So suck it up and do the work required. You don’t hear Stephen complaining.”

“You tell ‘em,” Tony chuckled.

Carol ignored him. “Now, let’s try this again. Why are you here? Take a minute and think about your answer. What is your motivation for being on this team? And what are you willing to do to stay on the team?”

And so they started. One by one they answered the question. 

“I’m here because I have promised my father and myself that I will not fail to protect him again,” Vision said.

“You never failed me,” Tony denied.

Vision looked at his creator and smiled sadly. “JARVIS is part of me. I know the struggle he put forth to stop Ultron. It was not enough. I inherited much of his knowledge, but also his fear of seeing you hurt. And since my creation, I have chosen to do whatever is in my power to make sure that you are protected from harm.”

“And you’ve done good, kid,” Bucky told him. 

They moved on to Logan. He shrugged. “All I know is fighting the good fight and searching for my past. Can’t do either with my old team right now, and I trust Tony, so here I am. I like the team I’ve been working with but I’m not sure about the new recruits. We’ll see.”

“I needed a safe place for me an my aunt,” Peter said. “And Tony gave us that, with no strings. But I was already out there doing the superhero stuff and I’d still be doing it alone if Tony hadn’t brought us here. This is much better.”

“I’m here to clear my ledger,” Natasha said quietly. “Not sure if I know how to trust like other people, but the people I trust the most are either in this room or watching from a distance. Some more than others.”

“Who do you not trust?” Carol asked.

Natasha hesitated. “Barnes. Myself. Strange. You.”

“Interesting list,” Carol said. “Let’s talk later.”

Bucky was next. “I’m just getting to know some of you, and I don’t have anything against you, but trust is tough to earn. Too many years of being hurt and being used. It’ll take me time to let the new people in.”

Stephen, Clint, Rhodey and Scott were next, and all four of them stated that they trusted the team well enough, but they were only reserves and all four had very good reasons to keep their distance. It generally wasn’t due to a lack of trust, but due to obligations outside of the group. And, in Clint’s case, burnout.

“You know, if you wanted to take a position out of the field, we could use someone with your experience to run our operations from the control center,” Tony told him. “And there’s plenty of room for your family. We could combine a couple of the suites, or there’s an empty house that used to be occupied by the caretaker that’s empty now. Not dissimilar to the house you and Laura have now, actually. Say the word and I’ll have people out to get it ready for you.”

Clint blinked at Tony. “You’d... you’d do all that? Even if I wasn’t going to be on the team?”

“Hell, yes,” Tony told him. 

“Oh,” Clint said. “I’ll... I’ll think about it.”

When it was Steve’s turn he paused. “I’m not really sure why I’m here. It’s partly because Bucky’s here and partly because I want to make things up with Tony. But I can’t really tell you why I’m on the team.”

“Told you, punk,” Bucky said as he reached across the table to grab his friend’s hand. “You don’t have to be what they want you to be. Figure out what you want. You and me, we’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, what he said,” Tony said playfully. That teasing was the best sign that things were getting back on track with Tony, and it made Steve’s heart a little lighter.

Steve nodded. “Yeah. I think... I think I need to take a leave. Figure some stuff out.”

WINTER-IRON

Steve didn’t leave right away, but he did stop working with the team and began planning a trip that would take him around the world by backpack and bike. A month after that meeting, Steve’s world tour was set and Tony loaded him down with cash and credit cards, as well as multiple ways to keep in touch. And Tony assured him that his suite would be waiting for him anytime he wanted to come back.

“Stay in touch,” Bucky insisted as they hugged. “Otherwise I’ll come kick your ass.”

“I will,” Steve promised. “You stay outta trouble. You’ll be mated the next time I see you.”

“That’s the plan,” Bucky agreed. Tony had finally agreed to mate and bond. They were just waiting for his next heat, which was due in two weeks. “Remember, you get in a jam and you give me a call. I’ll always have your back, punk.”

“To the end of the line,” Steve agreed with a small smile. And then he was gone.

WINTER-IRON

Tony's heat came exactly two months after his last one and he gave a sigh of relief that it was finally getting back to a regular cycle, even if that cycle was different than the old one. Bucky was just happy that they would finally be able to mate. 

Ever the sappy romantic—a trait that Tony secretly adored—Bucky decked out Tony's bedroom with candles and flowers. He cooked dinner for them and turned the whole thing into a picture perfect courtship. Tony teased Bucky through the whole thing, but couldn't stop smiling as Bucky fed him bites from his own plate and peppered the meal with champagne flavored kisses.

When they finally headed for the bedroom, Tony was more than ready to give into the hormones that had been building for the past several hours. And Bucky was ready to do anything that Tony wanted or needed. Sex between them was often fun and creative, sometimes scorching hot and hard, but always filled with love. That night was one of the rare times when Bucky fought against their instinctive impatience in order to draw the whole experience out. By the time Bucky bit Tony's mating gland and let the omega come, Tony was a sobbing mess, but he never doubted just how much Bucky cared for him.

Later, after Bucky's knot had subsided and before their hormones could sweep them away again, they lay cuddled together. "I love you, you know that, right?"

"I do know it," Bucky said as he buried a smile into Tony's messy hair. "And I love you too."

"Good to know since we're now stuck with each other," Tony smirked. "Seriously, though, I think it's probably past time that you moved in here."

"Kind of just a formality at this point," Bucky pointed out. "Most of my stuff is already over here."

Tony sat up and looked down at his mate. "No. That's not right. You..."

"Tony, I sleep here every night," Bucky explained. "Which means the clothes I wear every day end up in your dirty clothes. The housekeepers pick them all up, clean them and bring them back here. I think I only have a couple shirts and sweatpants in my suite. As for the rest of it, I don't really own all that much. My guns and knives, at least the ones that aren't in my weapons locker in the team locker room, have been stashed in the lock boxes around the suite for months. Any other personal stuff has been in a shoebox the walk-in closet here since you asked me to show you my old dog tags."

Tony huffed and lay back down. "I still can't believe you stole them from the Smithsonian."

Bucky shrugged. "Not stealing. They're mine."

"Whatever," Tony sighed and burrowed closer to his alpha. "You gong to fuck me again anytime soon?"

Bucky huffed before rolling and pinning his omega to the bed. "Getting demanding now that we're mated, are't ya?"

"Can you handle it, alpha?" Tony taunted.

Bucky growled and nipped at Tony's ear. "I can handle anything you dish out, baby." And he proceeded to prove it. 

THE END  
WINTER-IRON


End file.
